Ultimate Sonic
by Kid Eternity
Summary: Following the reboot by a certain crisis, a new Mobius has emerged and is now asserting itself into the Multiverse. Nothing is what it seems here, and the Freedom Fighters will be needing all the help they can get if they're going to survive Dr. Robotnik.
1. Chapter 1

**Ultimate Sonic**

**by**

**Kid Eternity**

* * *

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie Publishing.**

* * *

_It started with...the sky..._

_It happened on a day like any other..._

_The kind where you just go about without a care, and never even knowing if it'll last..._

_With my best friend goading me on to catch him, I pursued and before I knew it the wind had carried him away from me..._

_I couldn't catch up, but sometimes he'd lessen the gap between us enough for me to reach him ever so slightly..._

_Then all of a sudden it got dark..._

_At first I thought it was just a storm. I called out to the boy already far in front of me to come home..._

_I knew by then that he couldn't hear me, but to my surprise he stopped.._

_It was then that he looked up, and as I went near and beheld his face, I saw wonder and curiosity, along with..._

_Fear..._

_Then I looked up as well, and instead of a storm..._

_I saw something much worse..._

* * *

Sally had just finished putting up the finishing touches to N.I.C.O.L.E's new graphics components which she managed to salvage from the junk piles in Robotropolis.

It was the middle of the day, and having done all of her other chores like gathering food and water, and maintaining their makeshift security systems strategically based on certain parts of the forest to help defend them from any badniks, she decided to check on her best friend and second in command Sonic the Hedgehog.

Entering his home, she found him leaning against a chair with his feet on his desk, asleep. Expecting nothing less for him to be napping at such an hour, she was even more unimpressed by how messy the inside of his house was.

With slow, heavy footsteps; careful not to step on anything, she marched right up next to him and said in a stern and forceful tone, "Sonic? Sonic wake up!"

No response. with Sonic still deep in snooze land for him to even give notice. Irritated, she breathed in and said even louder, "_SONIC HEDGEHOG_! _WAKE UP THIS INSTANT OR ELSE_!"

To her amazement, still nothing out of him; save for a snort and a rub of his nose. Having had enough, her lips contorted into a wicked smile as she raised her hand.

Hesitating for a moment, she opted to give waking him up the old fashioned way another try, only to immediately shrug it off and proceed to lay down a hard slap on his chest causing him to wake up in shock. Losing his balance, Sonic fell from the chair and fell down onto the hard wooden floor; with his body welcoming a new pain greater than the last.

He shook his head and groaned as he struggled to get up. "W-what the heck!? Who the-?" Looking up from his dazed stupor, he made eye contact with a very ticked off chipmunk.

He quickly bolted up and brushed away the excess dirt, before giving the lady in front of him a nervous smile. "H-hey Sal, good morning!"

"It's noon," she replied in a deadpan voice.

"Oh? Oh! Noon, right, so uh...are you done with your chores?" He said while rubbing his eyes as well as his sore posterior.

"Are _you_?" Sally's voice was more authoritative this time. With her hands on her hips, she stared daggers at the hedgehog. She then crossed her arms as she continued to question him. "Sonic, how many chores did you do..._exactly_?"

"Who me? Uh...well that depends...how many are left?"

"_None_! In case you haven't noticed I did my entire half, but had no other choice but to do all of yours too when you decided to do a little r&r! Weren't you supposed to be the one to gather the food? I had to do double checks on our rations, not to mention the modifications I had to do on N.I.C.O.L.E and don't even get me started on our secu-!"

"Okay, okay I get it! Chill Sal! Look, you know I did a major patrol run last night. I was beat, so sue me. Somebody had to make sure Knothole's perimeter was secured."

"That is so typical you; making excuses, always trying to avoid any responsibility around here. In case you haven't noticed we're not the only Freedom Fighters living here. We have to keep maintaining a smooth operation if we're going to go through the next winter and that includes stocking up!"

"I know!" Sonic scratched his head indignantly. "But you need to calm down for a minute Sal."

"Oh I'm definitely calm! I'm as calm as anyone can be! Especially when it comes to dealing with the laziest, most irresponsible hedgehog this side of Mobius!"

"Well sorry, I didn't realize that I was so useless! I'll try to be a lot more "responsible" the next time you barge in here and give me hell for it!" And with that, he ran passed Sally and headed for the door.

"Don't you walk away from this Sonic Hedgehog, I'm not do-!" She was stopped by a hard slam of the door. Sighing heavily, she rubbed her head and gave out a loud grunt before stomping on the floor.

"_Why do I even bother with him_!?"

* * *

"_Who does she think she is anyway_? _Okay she's the princess and all_, _but still_..."

Walking past huts and houses that made up most of Knothole Village, Sonic was still a little drowsy from having his nap interrupted like that. Rubbing his chest and shoulder, he grunted and tried to ignore the still persistent soreness.

Looking up, he was surprised to find that dark clouds were forming. "_Rain's a comin', looks like Sally wasn't too far off in trying to fortify our resources...oh well, we'll do the whole forgive and forget routine later. Right now, I've gotta check on my little buddy_!"

Turning around a corner, he soon arrived in front of a small house. Walking up to the door, he knocked three times. The wooden plank that was strung up by a nail with the word "Tails" etched in black paint wobbled as he did so.

No response

Sonic knocked again, only much harder this time, but still nothing. "_Hm...might as well check out to see what's going on inside. Now normally this would be an invasion of privacy, but _I am_ his best bud_!"

Stealthily, he opened the door, causing what little light from outside to illuminate the interior. As Sonic got a better look, he noted that nobody was indeed home.

Deciding to investigate, he entered and closed the door. With a quick burst of speed, he managed to search the entire living room, or at least enough of what made up the living room considering its small size and that it was just a one person residence.

"_Hm, looks like Tails isn't here. I wonder where...wait, don't tell me_!"

Quickly exiting the house, he ran past several people at full speed, some of which were still hard at work with their own duties. "(_Sigh) Guess I should have been a lot more considerate about what Sally was bawling on about..._"

Reaching past the border of the village, Sonic immediately found a path that led to a place that he was all too familiar with; The Lake of Rings.

* * *

Bolting clear through several trees, Sonic was careful not to set off some of the booby traps installed to prevent anyone from entering the Lake without the proper clearance.

The _Power Ring_ generator; being the most important power source for both the village and Sonic himself, was hidden deep beneath the lake to help hide it.

It was one of the few mementos left to him by his late Uncle Chuck. The other being his custom sneakers, which were made out of the same material used on Power Rings and were thus designed to be highly resilient against friction.

The only known people who knew of the Lake's location was Sonic, Sally and...

"_Tails_!"

Picking up speed, he managed to get a glimpse of a small figure sitting next to the lake, and sure enough, it was indeed his best friend. The young fox was sitting on a big log; his attention fixed on something that he was working on.

Hearing a whizzing sound, but still not turning around to look, the young pre-teen immediately knew that it could only be one person; who stopped at just the right distance behind him.

Sonic tapped his foot rapidly, with his hands on his hips and looking slightly livid. "So, I suppose this is where you keep yourself busy from doing any chores huh?"

Smiling, Tails simply replied, "Hey Sonic, finished with your nap I see?"

Grinning, Sonic ran a hand through his face. "Yeah and I got called out on it by her royal assertiveness for not pulling my weight around here."

"Sally's just doing her job, it's been getting kind of edgy ever since several of our raid squads got picked out by SWATbots...it's just been really hard on her."

An uncomfortable churning started in Sonic's stomach. "And how do you think _I_ feel about it? I was leading most of those squads on and Robotnik was able to beef up on security since the first few times, so I guess credit goes to him for living and learning."

"But at least we were able to get some choice parts and weapons, didn't we? Just look at what I got here." Lifting it up for Sonic to see, Tails presented the hedgehog with what he had been working on.

"Is that a laser gun?" Sonic asked, a bit surprised by the weapon that Tails was brandishing, which appeared to be a small, orange handgun-like device with a metallic, cylindrical cartridge installed inside the grip.

"Not exactly, point it up a tree and pull the trigger."

"Wait, you want me to actually shoot this thing and waste a tree? Can you say 'forest fire'?"

"Relax it's not a laser, just pull the trigger and be amazed. I promise it won't be disappointing."

Taking the weapon in hand, he gave Tails one final look with a raised eyebrow. While the fox just smiled and nodded his head.

Doing as he was instructed, Sonic raised the gun and aimed it at a tree, making sure it was just far enough from the lake and them.

Once he pulled the trigger, a clear stream of fluid shot out of the muzzle at high pressure, latching itself on to a branch.

"Woah! What the heck? What is this!?" Sonic asked in bewilderment.

"Like it? It's something that I was able to develop from the chemicals that you guys managed to salvage from your last raid. By combining a distinct set of polymers and resins that I found in the Forbidden Forest together, I was able to make a fluid that instantly dries when exposed to air.

"I came up with the idea ever since we got captured by that sticky foam that Robotnik's SWATs got us in the last time."

"Man I knew you were smart, but this is just way past cool. Does it work Tails?" Curious, Sonic examined the fluid that was sticking out from the muzzle, although now it had dried into a thick cord.

Grabbing it with his free hand, he was surprised by its adhesion as it instantly clung to his glove. "Ugh, it's sticky!" Sonic said as he tried to tug at his hand, but found the now dry substance to be highly persistent. He then dropped the gun on the ground and stepped on the muzzle before giving a harder pull.

"It's _supposed_ to be sticky, here let me help you with that, you might break it." Getting a hold of the gun; all the while being careful not to get any on himself, he signaled for the both of them to pull in opposite directions at the same time.

Unfortunately, the task proved to be more difficult than expected as it proved resilient to breakage. Realizing that it was futile, Sonic took off his glove and handed it to Tails.

"Well, I must say that this turned out to be an excellent test run!" Tails exclaimed.

Sonic scratched his head. "Wha-since how is this excellent? I just lost a glove, so now I have to go home and grab a new one." He rubbed his hands together, feeling the fabric of his remaining glove against his bare palm.

"Sonic, just think of what we can do with this. I mean, we'd be able to increase our security exponentially! I've already tested the fluid out earlier this morning and believe me when I say this; my magplas is some pretty strong stuff."

"Well how can I-wait...'_magplas'_?"

Tails nodded. "Uh-huh, if I can mass produce this we'll be able to set some up as traps."

Sonic paused for a moment in thought, then glanced one more time at the device in Tails' hand. "But are you sure it's safe? I mean, will it really work?"

"I'm sure of it, just trust me on this one."

"I don't know, I mean don't you think it might, y'know, muck up some of our operations?" Sonic grinned, taking in the humor of his remark.

"I'm still trying to come up with a solution for that, but so far, this is all I've got. I've already made a few batches of this stuff and I'm planning on asking Aunt Sally to give me the green light to use some."

"Well good luck with that, but just keep your magplas away from me. Anyhoo, come on Tails' let's go home, it's about to rain and judging by how dark the clouds are getting, it's gonna be one doozy of a storm."

With that, the duo made their way back to the village and went about their separate ways to their respective homes.

Nearing his house, Sonic saw that Sally was still waiting for him on his front porch; who then slowly made her way to meet up with him. "Where have you been?" She then noticed his glove. "And what pray tell, happened to that?" Crossing her arms, she pointed a finger at Sonic's bare hand.

Peeved at her tone, Sonic just dismissed her with a huff. "Tsk, just went out to look for Tails. Found him by the lake with some kind of new invention. He'll be talking about it with you some other time, but right now, I've got to buck up for this storm."

"Oh so _now_ you're being responsible. Well that's just peachy, next thing you know you'll be asking to call the shots around here."

Sonic just flashed her a grin. "You know, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea. Maybe I _should_ be the leader."

Sally rolled her eyes, "As if I'd ever let you again. You remember what happened the last time I let you lead a team? SWATbots will be mowing us down in no time."

Hearing this, Sonic stopped before the steps to his porch. He looked down and heaved a heavy sigh, then turned around to look Sally in the eye, "So you're still mad about that huh?"

Sally stared coldly back, taking in the hedgehog's emerald green eyes that seemed to reflect her emotions. "They were good men Sonic, and they counted on you; _I_ counted on you, and you failed...Harold and Chuck are probably clanking their metallic hides for Robotnik now thanks to you."

Sonic gritted his teeth, now even more incensed at her merciless tirade, "Believe it or not Sal, Harold went off the deep end when he panicked! He got _himself_ captured by SWATs, and Chuck somehow; in defiance of all that is logical, paid attention to his stomach and tried to get a free lunch from a vending bot."

"As if you're not guilty of that. Don't tell me you don't go gaga over a chili dog whenever one catches you off guard!"

"Jeez louise Sally, you talk as if I have an obsession!"

"That's not the problem here, the problem is that _you need to be more responsible_!"

"I AM! I'm trying to be the best damn leader that I can be, but if some people just learned to follow orders and not walk off with their own stupidity, everything would be a-okay, instead, Harold and Chuck brought their troubles on-" he was cut off by a slap to the face, as Sally's scowl hardened, tears welling in her eyes.

"We're done here Sonic...just be sure to actually be on time for tomorrow's meeting at the square...or don't bother to come at all." Turning away, Sally walked off. Leaving a slightly dumbfounded, but nonetheless hurt hedgehog.

"Right...see you tomorrow Sal," he whispered, and wheeled around to enter his home.

...

Then the storm came.

* * *

_**To all readers, I have heavily edited all of the grammar mistakes that I have made and thus.**_

**From the mind of KidEternity comes another exciting one shot. This is going to be a reboot for Sonic the Hedgehog, my own re-imagining of our favorite blue blur. I will (unofficially) be referring to this as the Ultimate Mobius universe.**

**As a general rule, I will include information on any new characters that will pop up. However, to put everyone into speed, here are some of the basics.**

**Sonic is 18**

**Sally is 18**

**Tails is 12**

**I decided to make Tails a bit older to at least not make him into just a tag-along kid, and Sally here is the leader of this version of the Freedom Fighters, as opposed to Sonic who usually fills this role. In addition, unlike Sonic SatAM or most versions, the Freedom Fighters are not a small group, but an entire village of Mobians.**

**On a brown note, to avoid confusion, Uncle Chuck is long gone and "Chuck" is merely another mobian who had the misfortune of having not eaten before being deployed. Also, I edited some parts out that were...suggestive.**

**As a one shot, I will continue this based on reviews, so enjoy!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie.**

As the sun shone on Knothole, Sonic was busy buckling his shoes in his room. A task so simple, yet so difficult as rapid thoughts began to purvey in his mind.

"_Wonder what Sally's gonna go on about at the meeting...probably another evaluation for a mission. Come to think of it, it's been days since some of the scouts got back from Robotropolis to report, at least...the scouts that managed to get back_."

Focusing a bit on what he was doing, he finally tightened the buckle of his right shoe. Standing up and dashing to the mirror, he surveyed himself one more time. "_Well...looks like it's another one of those days where you just want to call in sick, but seeing as how Sally will probably lay down the law on me again like yesterday, this hedgehog doesn't have much of a choice_."

Flash stepping out the door and locking it shut, he slid the key under his welcome mat and sped straight to the village square.

...

The Knothole Village square was nothing more than a wide patch of land, with a large veranda at the center. It was there that Freedom Fighters would often hold general meetings; missions, recons, etc. Classified meetings on the other hand would usually be held in a well secured underground bunker outside of the village border.

Inside the veranda, Sally Acorn was running through the last bits of info that the scouts managed to acquire from their investigations. It wasn't much, but seeing as how only 3 out of a 5 man team managed to get back safely; save for a few scrapes, she couldn't risk sending in another team, knowing full well that Robotnik may have already added security.

She was wearing a white skin-tight shirt under a blue sleeveless vest with white trimmings, a utility belt around her waist where she kept all of her tools and a holster for N.I.C.O.L.E., white fingerless gloves and blue combat boots.

"_I'm not going to let their sacrifice be in vain...now if all of this is true, we might need a more precise form of infiltration. Robotnik still doesn't know about what info we managed to get from hacking into one of his SWATbots, so he may or may not even be aware of our incoming strike._

_"Let's see, I've already let N.I.C.O.L.E. run simulations. If all goes well, this mission might just go off without a hitch...but why do I still feel so uneasy?_

_..._

_"Must be the stress...come to think of it, it's been getting tough around here ever since Robotnik managed to pick off a reasonable number of members_." Sally massaged her eyes with a free hand, having barely slept due to preparations for the meeting.

"_Sonic...maybe I was a little too harsh on him yesterday...okay I was really harsh on him, slapping him was just the icing on the cake. Regardless, he should at least be a little more considerate of the people around him. We're fighting the good fight and what is he doing? Slacking and goofing off! It's a miracle that I even let him stick around to be my second, otherwise I would have...stop Sally girl, that's just the stress talking_."

Sally took a deep breath and shook her head, struggling to keep herself alert. "_He does have a point sometimes. Some of the people here are still rookies, and they haven't been doing this for as long as we have seeing as how we've fought badniks since he and I were just fourteen_."

A smile crept up as memories of their younger years started flooding back. "_Why can't things just go back to the way they were? Why in the hell did Robotnik have to come along and ruin it_?"

Putting N.I.C.O.L.E. down on the table and walking to the edge of the veranda, she closed her eyes and felt the morning breeze blow through. "_In a matter of months...at the rate we're going, it won't be long before we'll all be captured and roboticized...unless a miracle comes along we're sitting ducks as it is. Hiding in plain sight, just waiting to die like animals_."

Sally was interrupted by a light tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she was met by none other than the blue blur himself.

"Hey Sal! A-am I late?" He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, still at a loss as to how he was going to act towards her.

No, not at all. A little surprised by his punctuality, Sally lunged forward and hugged him, with the slightly shocked hedgehog glancing at her and wondering if he was still asleep.

"I'm sorry..."

His eyes widened at her apology, as his hands went up to her shoulders while slowly breaking away from the embrace.

"I'm...sorry about yesterday Sonic...I was just...I wasn't thinking straight."

Knowing what she meant, he looked down and rubbed the tip of his shoe on the wooden floor. "It's no big Sal, you we're just playing your role up as a leader...we're both exhausted."

"Sonic...let's just try to face the facts here...unless we somehow get an edge against Robotnik in this war, it won't be long until Knothole ends up in his sights. We've already lost a lot...and I don't think our situation is going to improve any time soon."

Gritting his teeth, Sonic tightened his grip on her. "Look Sal...everything you said to me the other day, you were right. I have to be more responsible, not just for myself, but for you, Tails and everyone else here. I can't just play it cool all the time, and even though things may look bleak, I'm not gonna give up, and neither should you, got that!?"

Sally looked up and made contact with his eyes. Seeing the determination in them, she snorted out a smile and laid her hands on his and brought them down without letting go.

"Never give up...you know, it's been those words that's been helping me keep going all this time. With you here...it just makes it a hell of a lot easier."

"Hey, what can I say, I do have that effect on people."

She couldn't help but roll her eyes at this, "Well let's just hope you'll still have that effect when this place gets packed."

38 minutes later

The veranda was almost full to the brim with resistance fighters; all of them squad leaders, with Sally and Sonic standing in front of a wooden board near the table where documents and blueprints were spread out.

"You're all probably wondering why this emergency meeting was called," Sally asked as she surveyed her surroundings, trying to see if there were any missing, not counting KIAs, MIAs and RIAs.

Her audience silent; save for a cough and a few whispers, Sally continued. "Last night, Squad 16 managed to return from their scouting mission, where they were able to retrieve information detailing the location of a concentration camp full of imprisoned mobians; all of them organics and being kept as slave labor."

The whispering grew louder, and Sally knew that they were getting anxious. "Everyone, order! Calm down, I'm well aware that you've all been going through a lot lately, seeing as how that many good friends and comrades are no longer here...but we can't give up. We have no right to, as it would be an insult to all of the people who sacrificed so much for freedom."

A jaguar, pushing his way through the crowd, raised his fist at her. "Oh yeah!? Well how come Robotnik just keeps getting the jump on us. My brother was captured a week ago, and I didn't see anybody here so much as lift a finger to rescue him!"

Sally frowned a little at him. "Ebon, we did everything in trying to get him back, you know that!"

"Bullshit! We could have gone back for him in no time at all, but you just had to call for a damn retreat!"

"We were under heavy fire! It was either that or suicide!" Sally stood her ground, but seeing the pain under the jaguar's scowl made her shiver a bit.

Hesitating to answer back, Ebon just turned away and grunted. His fists tightly clenched, tears started to well up in his eyes as he retreated back into the crowd.

A brief, but heavy silence followed, with Sally resuming shortly. "Now, moving on...Squad 16, which unfortunately has been reduced to 3 members, was also able to map out all possible routes that would be safest to take towards the camp.

"This way, we will be able to move in undetected and hopefully if we play our cards right; liberate the prisoners."

"Yeah, and then what?" a male doberman from the crowd called out. "Well, we'll give them sanctuary here of course," Sally answered.

Groans and sighs went all around, something that Sally anticipated, but still stung her a little inside. "Now I know what most of you are thinking. Our food supply has been steadily diminishing for the last 2 weeks and we've only been able to get by with what we could find here and there, but rest assured I've already sent out a group to help us restock, and with that coinciding with this mission, now is a better time than any to act.

"There is also plenty of room to go around. I'm not expecting any of you to like it, but in case you've all forgotten, this is one of the main reasons why we're even doing this, to liberate our people from that tyrant."

Silence once again, as Sally kept shooting point after point at them to oppose their reluctance. All the while not letting on that she was beginning to have doubts herself, with the only other person who might have already seen through her facade being Sonic; who was leaning by the edge playing the observer.

It wasn't that Sonic wasn't any good at rallying the troops himself, but when it came to planning and motivational speaking, it was Sally that trumped him out of both; and boy did he love her for it.

...

"We'll need to assemble a team then, who do you suggest your highness?" a female otter asked.

"First, any volunteers?" At this, nobody raised a hand, save for the otter and Sonic, who simply flashed a grin at her, which she returned with a grateful smile.

"Very well then. I choose Elaine's squad to take up this mission, with the special inclusion of Sonic as an extra hand at its success and to report directly to me in its aftermath. Any objections?"

Her question was met with no response, as she could see that a lot of them were already eager to leave. "The time of the mission will be classified. For those with additional questions and/or suggestions please remain. Meeting adjourned, dismiss!"

Everyone in the room save for herself, Sonic and Elaine left before the three of them huddled together. She then whispered to them, "The bird must be perched on its nest in one hour."

They nodded as they understood what she meant before Elaine turned to leave, with only Sonic and Sally remaining.

"That was some meeting Sal. Not as chaotic as the usual ones, but still goes to show that you have what it takes."

"Well, it's not getting any easier, but at least I'm able to keep them in line. Although I am beginning to suspect that a lot of them aren't exactly big on the loyalty department."

"Being a princess and a leader are two entirely different things Sal, and you learned that harsh truth not too long after you started this little group," Sonic said as he rolled several documents to put them away.

"_We_ started it! Together, remember? We were always there for each other when things got tough...every day when we were hiding from SWATbots and trying to survive...and it was always you who came through when it mattered...I'm sorry again about...yesterday."

"Take a chill pill Sal! I'm over it, and you should too. This isn't exactly a good time to mope about stuff like that. So are we really going to wait an hour to meet at the 'Club House'?"

"Elaine is going to be there with her squad mates, which means we have to be there before them to welcome their arrival and also to make sure no else tries to compromise this mission."

"Until then, wanna come to my place for a short breather?" Sonic thumbed behind outside as he gave her a wink. Smiling, Sally walked around him before whispering to his ear. "Not a chance true blue, but nice try."

Sonic lowered his head to hide his wide grin and breathed out, "Damn!"

* * *

**New character profiles for today:**

**Elaine the Otter**

**Gender: Female**

**Age: 16**

**One of the original inhabitants of Mobotropolis, now Robotropolis, Elaine is one of several mobians that are still loyal to the Royal Family of Acorn and thus, to Princess Sally. One of the more experienced, reasonable and level-headed of the Freedom Fighters, she is as reliable as can be in a tough situation.**

**Ebon the Jaguar**

**Gender: Male**

**Age: 19**

**Originally from Cat Country, which is unfortunately now a smoldering crater thanks to you-know-who, is one of the more aggressive members and fiercely hates Robotnik right down to the bone. He and his younger brother took up arms in the resistance at a moment's notice after happening upon Knothole. Short-tempered, but passionate, Ebon; although a hard ass and bit of a sour puss, strongly believes in the Freedom Fighter cause.**

* * *

**I strongly suggest past readers to re-read past chapters every now and then, as I am constantly editing them to provide maximum reading enjoyment. However, this is optional and is therefore not a requirement in and of itself.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog is the property of SEGA and Archie Publishing.**

* * *

In a secluded area of the Great Forest, where the largest and thickest trees stood proud and tall, there walked two figures making their way through the shrubs and bushes.

One of them was walking ahead, while the other one was lagging behind, carrying what seemed to be a substantially large backpack. "Sweet mother of Mobius, what's in this thing anyway?"

"Oh just the bare essentials Sonic; equipment, food, water, everything that you'll be needing for the mission. Now come on, we're burning daylight!"

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Sonic struggled to trudge on and keep up. "Yeah, that's not all we're burning, WHEW!"

The Underground Bunker; or the "Club House" to those who knew of its location, was located deep within the wilderness of the Great Forest where it was easy to get lost, and as such, served as an ideal spot to hold secret meetings.

Only Sally and Sonic knew of its location, before they dispensed such knowledge to the squad leaders.

"It'll be nice to make it before it gets too dark, we've already wasted enough time packing up, let's just hope Elaine and her group are coming," Sally said as she jumped over a log.

"Nah, Elaine knows her stuff, she'll co-WHOA!" Tripping on the log, Sonic barely had any time to react as he fell face first on the ground and trampled mercilessly by his burden.

Wheeling around quickly, Sally ran to help the flattened hedgehog. "Sonic! Sonic are you alright!?" Pushing the backpack away, she wasted no time in attending to her best friend.

Turning him around to face her, she cradled him in her arms while trying to wake him up. "Sonic!"

Opening his eyes groggily, the world around him was spinning. "I'll have the extra-large chili dogs, easy on the onions...on second thought, double the onions my good man and don't skip on the relish..."

Rolling her eyes, she knew this to be a sign that he was okay, because when it came to chili dogs Sonic was always okay.

"Come on! Up and at 'em hedgehog!" Snapping her fingers at his face, Sonic shook his head and regained some semblance of consciousness.

"Who in the what!? Sally? Man, what happened!?"

Helping him up, she pointed to the log. "You tripped."

"Moi? Trip!? Surely you jest Sal." Brushing off some dirt, he quickly picked the backpack up. "Now let's go to the bunker!"

Rolling her eyes again, Sally continued to walk alongside him."You know, that log back there was kind of familiar, don't you think?"

Sonic rubbed the back of his head. "It does? What do you mean?"

"Well as I recall, it was the same log that we hid under when Robotnik was looking for us with his scoutbots. It was just after we ran away from Mobotropolis, remember?"

"Oh yeah, now I do...sheesh, that was some fall, my face is still sore." Rubbing his nose, he then turned to Sally, whose expression was eerily calm; that is until she noticed his gaze. "What?"

"You still think it was a good idea...I mean running away. We could have just stayed and helped fight him." Sonic said.

"Just what exactly do you expect two 8 year old kids to do against a situation like that...it was lucky that Uncle Chuck found us." Sally replied.

Sonic looked down. "Yeah...that was before..." Sally's warm hand went around and intertwined with his fingers, followed by a warm kiss on the cheek. "I know."

Reaching their destination, Sonic lowered the bag on the ground with a loud thump and fell back down on it. "Man! Next time, let's get a trolley or a wagon or something, because I am not going to waste another breath doing the heavy lifting."

"Catch your breath quick, because we're about to have company." Taking N.I.C.O.L.E. out of her holster, Sally walked towards a small hill where several rocks were resting; one in particular that was standing straight up in a pillar like fashion.

She then ran her free hand on its flat surface, until she came upon a rectangular shaped impression. It was invisible enough at a distance, to help prevent anyone; especially spies, from finding it.

Pressing it with her fingers, it immediately opened up to reveal an outlet. She then pulled out an Ethernet cable underneath N.I.C.O.L.E.'s console before plugging her in and activating her.

"N.I.C.O.L.E., access the electronic lock, password 'bean'."

The palmtop lit up, followed by a computerized female voice. "Accessing."

…

"Access granted."

As soon as she said it, the ground shook, with the bed of rocks slowly shifting to the right to reveal a large metallic door.

"Well this sure takes me back, Uncle Chuck's old laboratory; the 'Club House'!" Sonic said proudly with hands on his hips.

"It's been months since you last came here, right?" Sally asked as she punched in the access codes on N.I.C.O.L.E. to open the door.

"Well, there haven't really been any missions of this caliber to warrant me coming here so..."

"Do you really need a reason to come here? I mean, it's not like this place is off limits to us, we did used to live here."

"It's not that simple. Wth whatever that's going on at Knothhole, I haven't really had the time at all to visit."

"I do," Sally said as she unplugged N.I.C.O.L.E..

"Yeah, but you only do it for briefings," Sonic said as he started dragging the bag to the opened door.

"Not always, I come here to clear off some steam, especially when it comes to you," she grinned at him, causing him to sigh.

"Just what exactly is it that I do that it would warrant you to come here?" Sonic said.

"Being you," she replied as she entered first, a mischievous smile widening on her lips.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up! Just when have I ever driven you mad?"

"Sigh, every day of the week for as long as I can remember," she said while rolling her eyes.

The two were now walking through a narrow passageway, which was quite dark, save for a switch that could still be seen from what little light that entered from outside. Sally proceeded to press it to turn on the lights, which illuminated the narrow passageway of the tunnel.

"Sonic, you stand guard outside, while I set up the briefing room," Sally said as she got hold of the bag.

"On it Sal, but uh, are you sure you should-"

Sonic was cut off by the shock of seeing Sally swinging the bag effortlessly over her shoulder. "I should what?"

"Uh...never mind." And with that, Sonic bolted out of the door. Leaving Sally who was now heading deeper into the tunnel towards the light.

...

As Sonic waited outside for Elaine and the others, the sky grew even darker, indicating that it was already around 6 or even a quarter to 7.

Sitting on a nearby boulder while whistling a happy tune to himself and drawing on the ground with a stick, his impatience started to rear itself out, and Sonic was never always one to keep waiting.

"_Where could they be?_"

Jumping off the large rock, Sonic threw the stick at a nearby bush, only to hear a faint yelp of pain. On the alert, he readied himself into a stance. "Who's there!? Show yourself!"

A faint rustling could be heard, followed by a loud voice emanating from the bushes. "Watch where you're throwing you blue blockhead!" It was distinctly high pitched, causing Sonic to cringe a bit.

"_Great, _now_ they're here_!"

After the rustling grew louder, two individuals emerged, with Sonic squinting his eyes a bit to identify them. The figures came near, one in particular who was marching up to him faster than the other who was turning on a flashlight.

As the light shone in front of him, Sonic raised a hand against his face to block out some of it from his eye, only to be met with the angry face of a female deer. "Like I said you cretinous clod, watch where you're throwing things or I'll ram you to a tree, got that!" She spat at his face while poking her finger at his chest.

"Sorry about that, I was just being vigilant, so anyway, are all of you guys here? Where's Elaine?" Another voice immediately responded. "I'm over here Sonic!" The otter said as she revealed herself in the light. "Are we late?"

"Better than never I guess, let's get inside quick!" He motioned for all of them into the door, taking one last look around to see if there was anything suspicious.

"You coming Sonic?" Elaine called from inside.

"Yeah Elaine, just give me a sonic second to close the door." Sonic replied.

Pressing a switch on the right wall, the door slowly closed shut, followed by a low rumble from outside; indicating that the camouflage was being set back in place.

Seeing that everything was secured, Sonic immediately dashed into the tunnel where the briefing was to take place.

As he entered, he was met by the site of the group surrounding a large table laid out with documents detailing plans.

Along the corners stood various arrays of equipment, ranging from computers to chemistry sets. One in particular that caught Sonic's eye the most, was a large cylindrical chamber at the farthest side of the room, marked with the words "Top Secret" and being reinforced by steel doors.

Walking up to them, Sonic spotted Sally talking to Elaine from across him, while the others were reading through various sheets of paper whilst scattered around. Taking some for himself, he skimmed through and found that they were all about the mission in infiltrating the concentration camp.

Time rotations, routes, security details, etc. everything was right at their fingertips. The only thing Sonic thought now was how to put such info to good use.

This is where Sally came in. "Now, you all know the basics, now for the in-depth details, the camp is located at the north side of Robotropolis. Inside, they keep unroboticized mobians as a labor force working for Robotnik's scrap piles, salvaging any parts that may be of use to him in the manufacturing of more bots. Now if you were to look here, this is where one of us will be positioned; the garbage waste disposal pipe."

Elaine rubbed her chin. "Didn't we already try that? Robotnik's sure to have put in some bots there."

"Yes, but that's what we'll make Robotnik think. Sonic is going to be the one to enter the pipes, and make it look like a sabotage rig."

"And that's where I show up with one of these." Taking out a small grenade out of the opened backpack, Sonic presented it to the group.

"What are those?" the deer asked.

"Tails made 'em. Full of some really sticky stuff he calls magplas. If I can get near one of the machines that manufacture those SWATbutts, I can really gunk up their operations."

"Will it work?" Elaine asked.

"Well for one thing this stuff cost me a glove, and Tails' says it's pretty tough; I mean _really_ tough. One more test run before we left had us sticking a boulder to a tree, and pushing it over a cliff, stuck together real tight no matter what we did. The only thing is, it dissolved after an hour or so, but other than that, this is a sure-fire way to bring Robuttnik way back up a notch."

"Excellent, now Elaine, I'll need your team to infiltrate the camp, but go black, be as discreet as possible and whatever you do, watch out for patrol bots, they'll instantly alert SWATbot security of any intruders. Wait until the prisoners are sent back to their cells, by then, use this electronic lock pick."

Sally procured a small remote-control like device from her belt and handed it to Elaine, who examined it as the latter continued. "We don't know the exact number of people there so we're just going to have to wing it, make sure that once you're ready lead all of them into one of the nearby tunnels here. There will be a passageway leading to the Forbidden Forest."

"When will the prisoners be taken into their cells? Surely if we wait too long we'll be discovered anyway," a male lemur from the back said.

"You'll all be deployed by 9:00 tomorrow in the evening, as they'll be put on lockdown by midnight," Sally said as she took out 6 small pellets from her belt. "Wear these communicators by your ears to keep in touch."

"What do we do in case of any trouble? How will we be able to defend ourselves in case we're found?" Elaine asked as she slipped her communicator on.

Taking hold of a remote from the table, she pointed it at a wall and pressed a button, which immediately opened and revealed a shelf lined with weapons. "In case it gets hot there, use these blasters, but I warn you, they have limited power so use them sparingly. It'd be a lot better if things went smoothly anyway."

A few minutes later, after packing up and readying their supplies, they all synchronized their watches. "All of you, report to the rendezvous point by 8:30. That'll be our safe zone leading up to the camp. Remember, it is imperative that nobody be late, understand!?" Sally said sternly, emphasizing the seriousness of the situation, which everyone in the room acknowledged.

"Will you be joining us your highness?" Elaine asked.

"No, I'll be here doing monitor duty, so Sonic will be the one to accompany you."

Everyone nodded, with only the deer groaning in frustration. After dismissing everyone, Sonic volunteered to remain to help Sally clean up. "You'll be here doing monitor duty? What happened to me not leading a team?"

"Technically, Elaine will be calling the shots, so you take your orders from her."

"Cool...so I guess that just leaves us a few hours to get ready huh?"

"Looks like it...I'm still not really 100% sure if this mission will go as planned Sonic."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure it does, you can count on me Sal!" Giving her a thumbs up and patting her on the shoulder with his other hand, Sally just smiled and gave him a peck on the lips,

"Whoa, and here I thought I was losing my touch with the ladies."

At this, Sally just laughed before giving him a deadpan look. "Don't push it!"

* * *

**Sorry it took this long to update, but my netbook is in trouble right now and I have to reformat it. No new characters today, except maybe for the deer and lemur, but since no name was given yet, I can't add them for now. So stay tuned.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog is the property of SEGA and Archie Publishing.**

* * *

The barren lands surrounding Robotrobolis were truly a sight to behold. Not like that of the dystopian metropolis, but the memory of their once lush greenery having long dispersed from reality and into the realm of nostalgia, many mobians now tend to fantasize; even struggle to remember, just for the simple alleviation.

Far from the city, in a large ditch, waited 6 individuals who were gathered together, standing by until their fateful departure. "So what now Elaine? Do we wait for some kind of signal or something?" Went the female deer.

"No Greta, we simply wait until it is a quarter to 9, and then we make our move. It is imperative that we not be late, as the journey to the camp will no doubt be tedious. Remember, stealth is our greatest ally, and therefore we cannot run the risk of being seen, _especially_ by bots."

Greta sighed in exasperation, "Great, another few minutes of having to sit around in this dump with the quill head."

Hearing this from the rock he was taking a nap on, Sonic's ears perked up, "What's the matter Greta, am I too cool for comfort?"

"Too annoying, I still haven't forgotten that stick you threw at me."

Sonic just opened his eyes and rolled them, "Petty much?"

"Sonic's right Greta, get over it," Elaine said as she adjusted her gun.

"Ugh, I just don't like this guy that's all."

"Well, I'm glad somebody here is open about it. Fred? Myron? Anyone else around here have a problem with me?" Sonic asked as he stood up and looked around the group, spotting the lemur and pig respectively, both of who turned away from the hedgehog's gaze.

"Don't mind them Sonic, they're…just not used to working with someone new," Elaine said as she looked up from her weapon.

Sonic crossed his arms, "Well Elaine, I'm not exactly the kind of guy who'd give a hoot on what people think about me, but if it's a matter of personal feelings interfering with a mission, I'd give a fair warning to everyone here to drop it and focus," his tone firm and commanding, Elaine just grinned a little and nodded for her crew to prepare their equipment, which they obeyed without another word.

Seeing that there were no more complaints, Sonic sat down next to the otter and started sorting through his backpack. "It never gets any easier does it?"

Elaine just shrugged while working, "Well, if it were up to me, I'd just want to worry about going to school like I used to…you?"

"School? Man I'm way too cool for that!" Sonic said a bit smugly, while running a hand through some of the undetonated magplas grenades.

"So how did you learn your ABCs then?" She asked teasingly, earning a look from the boy.

"My Uncle Chuck…taught me everything I know," he answered calmly, not betraying any emotion in front of the otter; who simply nodded and felt that more questions would just be prying into forbidden territory.

Looking into her watch and seeing that it was already 8:43 in the evening, Elaine felt that now was the right time for deployment. "Okay gang, time to earn our keep."

"Finally!" Greta exclaimed.

Packing up their things and lining up, Elaine studied each of them before going into a last minute briefing; but stopped short of Myron who was still busy with his hand sanitizer. "Alright listen up, we are about to go into enemy territory. This is possibly one of the most important missions in our tenure as a squad, so failure is not an option, it's not even an excuse, because when it comes to saving lives, nothing ever is."

Everyone remained silent, feeling the tension in the air growing. "So remember this, give it your all and spare no effort, because if we fail, then we won't have another tomorrow to look forward to. If it means freedom, then it's more than enough to pay any price, even the ultimate…"

Myron swallowed a lump in his throat at this, while the others struggled with their own way of readying themselves. All but Sonic, who just tapped his foot on the ground with his arms crossed. "Yeah, yeah, Elaine, get the speech over with already because those prisoners aren't going to liberate themselves you know."

"Sorry Sonic, but when it comes to getting ready, a little encouragement never hurts," Elaine replied. "Then I guess that just leaves me to pull a fast one on 'ol Buttnik!" Sonic said as he ran past the otter.

"Just be careful Sonic! Are all of your comms working alright?" Elaine said.

Pressing their communicators in their ears to test them, each took turns to say their names and confirm if they could be heard loud and clear, with all of them passing. "Alright let's move out!" And with that, they started, well on their way, with some of them still a little uncertain of what this mission might entail in the long run.

Sonic on the other hand, was already ahead of the others, running at full speed towards the city in which he had been to many times before, knowing the ins and outs of it all too well from experience.

Nearing his destination, he could already make out a few of the structures and buildings, almost all of them factories of some sort which catered to all of Doctor Robotnik's designs.

A few seconds later, he was already nearing the pipeline that led to his target, the one that developed Robotnik's elite, the Shadowbots. It was only a year ago that he created them, developed from data that he acquired throughout his past skirmishes with the Freedom Fighters.

They were faster, stronger, and arguably more intelligent than the average bot. They were also made out of the most refined mobibendum, the toughest metal alloy on Mobius, which was strange considering that it was also the heaviest. Regardless, with all of these combined; Robotnik had a truly unstoppable killing machine at his behest…almost.

Fortunately for the resistance, Sally was able to uncover one fatal flaw from the them; their optical sensors. Even though their armor was a tussle to penetrate, their optics were a different matter as they were still fragile enough for laser fire to go through, but seeing as how that Robotnik made them narrow enough, and how dangerous they were even from a short distance, aiming for them was a test of skill all on its own; as far as life or death was concerned.

Treading through various buildings and bots, which barely gave him any notice, Sonic finally reached his destination. Prying open the hatch, he carefully sneaked inside, while almost being spotted by a patrol bot. Taking out his flashlight and turning it on, he could see that the pipeline was wide enough for him to walk in, with the path leading upward in a curved fashion.

Sniffing around, he almost gagged at the fumes that were being ventilated through. "_I bet Buttnik's arm pits stink even worse_." Nearing the curved path, he placed his flashlight into his mouth and jumped to grab one of the metal seams.

Hanging on tightly, he was careful not to make too much noise, as he wasn't sure how far it would resonate from his position. "_This is definitely not my forte, but just as long as I stick to the plan, Elaine and the others will be fine…I hope_."

Reaching a straight path, Sonic sat down and leaned back on a wall to open his bag. "_Okay, gotta sort these babies out, don't wanna screw up and rip out another glove_."

Running a light through the contents, Sonic took out the magplas grenades one by one and managed to count 5 of them.

Seeing that they were just a few, Sonic decided to make do with what he had. "_The building is over two stories high and probably big enough to house a whole battalion of Shadowbots, if I can place these grenades at just the right spots, I might be able to start a chain reaction that'll set the whole place to blow sky high_!"

Smiling to himself, Sonic placed all of them back into the bag in an instant, and took out a small remote which was could only be the detonator. "_Let's just hope the frequency will be able to reach all of them_."

Placing it back in the bag and zipping it shut, Sonic resumed making his way through the pipes.

Following his senses, Sonic was able to hear the indistinct sounds of footsteps, grinding metal and motors, which meant that he was near the hangar where they were being deployed. "_Nope_!_ Gotta go in deeper_," he thought as he quickened his pacing; only stopping by a forked passageway.

Taking a right and heading straight ahead, he came upon another fork and took a left. "_Crap, why the hell did I not pay attention to the blueprints on this joint_," admitting to himself that he had almost no idea where he was going.

As he neared another turn, he could hear new sounds; gears shuffling and turbines hammering, he could also make out a pair of bots speaking to one another, but they were too muffled for him to understand. "_I must be getting close._" Cautioning himself, Sonic decided not to take any more chances. "_Let's just hope my anti-gravity soles are working_." Pressing a button at the back of each heel, he felt his steps lighten as he continued walking, with the noise being reduced significantly.

"_Thank you Uncle Chuck_!"

Seeing a ventilation shaft, Sonic heaved a sigh and wiped some sweat from his brow, before taking the backpack off and placing it on the floor so he could sit down to catch his breath.

Noticing a bright white light filtering through the bars, he slowly got into a crawling position and eased his head just close enough for an eye to see through, where he was treated to the sight of a laboratory. "_Wonder who's in here._"

He could feel that the air was cold, indicating that there was AC. Taking note of the interior, he could see three large shelves that were lined against the wall across him full of beakers, tubes and microscopes, with a large desk next to them stacked with papers and schematics.

Two wide tables were at the center, positioned next to each other and with even more equipment on them; some of which were being used, with tubes intertwining in patterns containing fluids coursing through them, ending in a large beaker at the edge that was being held in place by a stand; marked with the label "**FUEL**".

His curiosity piqued, Sonic studied the room more closely, only to hear a faint sound coming from the far corner. Seeing that there didn't seem to be bots or anything that could give him away, he inched closer against the bars.

At around the very far corner, there was a large figure sitting in front of a computer. "Let's see…if I adjust the circuitry to reroute the power output here, the Shadowbots will be able to run at a more efficient pace…considering the energy they usually need, it's surprising their motors don't burn out when they should."

Adjusting his vision, Sonic saw that it wasn't a bot, but a mobian. A bit surprised that Robotnik would even let any organic mobians in Robotropolis left; let alone work in one of his labs, he remained stationary, opting to observe and find out more about this mysterious character, if only for a short while.

Alas, in a fit of slight ignorance, Sonic accidentally dropped his flashlight while trying to slip it back into his bag, with the sound reverberating just enough for it to be heard outside.

"Huh?" Looking back, the mobian's eyes traveled around the room.

Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he shrugged it off and resumed his task, leaving Sonic sighing in relief. "Now, if I can only find a way to make them slightly more fragile, it would probably give the Freedom Fighters an easier time to deal with them."

Hearing this, the hedgehog drew in closer, surprised by the scientist's words. It was at this time that he could already make out what the latter was; a walrus. Judging from appearance, Sonic could tell that he wasn't that old, probably about his age, if not a few years older.

He was wearing a white, unbuttoned lab coat and rectangular glasses that were resting comfortably on his snout. He had purple skin, a round cream colored belly, and had two short strands of hair sticking out on his bald head.

"_Wonder if he's on our side_," he thought.

Still a bit suspicious though, Sonic remained silent, only for the door of the room to open a moment later, revealing a diminutive overlander entering with two Shadowbots on each side. "Good evening Doctor Boomer, I am here to acquire the new configurations for the Shadowbots under the orders of Doctor Robotnik…I assume you are finished with them?" His voice had an annoyingly nasal quality to it, complimented by a posh English accent, something that Sonic recognized all too well.

"_Snively_!"

Turning to face his guest, Boomer held back a sweat as he glanced at each of the man's guards. "Uh…yes of-of course I'm finished with them. Here they are." Taking out a small black flash drive from the computer, the walrus calmly handed it to the midget, who then slipped it into his back pocket.

"Excellent Doctor Boomer and now for another matter that needs our attention, how are the developments of our recent pet project coming along?"

Knowing what he meant, Boomer opened a drawer on his table and procured a small remote. Pointing it at a blank wall from across the room, he pressed the button which caused it to slide open.

What happened next prompted Sonic to clench his lips shut to stop himself from gasping. Out of the wall emerged a cylindrical glass chamber resting on a platform attached to a computer; the words PROJECT: RAB-BOT inscribed at the top of the glass, which was blurred by condensation, obscuring the being inside.

Going near it, Snively wiped away some of the moisture, only to reveal another mobian resting inside; a female rabbit to be precise.

He then moved on to the computer, which he activated with a hand gesture. "I'll need the activation codes Doctor Boomer, if you don't mind."

"W-w-why? Are you going to give her a test run like the last time?" Boomer asked as he fiddled with the remote in his hand.

Snively closed his eyes and sighed. "Not exactly, if it were up to me we wouldn't even be wasting precious resources on such a feeble endeavor, but Doctor Robotnik would very much like to see the results of his…investment."

"The activation code…right…um, its 0005268." His eyes wandering again, Boomer's gaze landed on the ventilation shaft, in which he could have sworn he saw movement. "_What the_?"

Punching the code in, the machine reacted accordingly and opened the glass door, releasing a cold cloud of vapor that caused Snively to shiver a bit.

Amazed at what he was seeing, he almost forgot about the mission. Taking a quick look at his watch, Sonic saw that he still had a full 2 hours and 39 minutes left. "_Plenty of time to watch the show_, _now I wonder who _that_ is_?" Sonic wondered as he caught sight of the slumbering rabbit.

Standing by it, Snively examined the subject and ran a hand through her arm. "Hm, are you sure these are operational?" He asked the walrus without turning to face him.

"Absolutely, I've already run a couple of intermediate tests, and her systems are good to go," Boomer replied.

"_Systems_? _What does he mean by that_?" Squinting his eyes a bit, Sonic tried to get as much of a view as he could, but since he wasn't exactly at the right angle, he could only catch her head, with the rest of her body being obscured by the glass door that stood agape, he resolved to just wait on what would happen next.

"Will I need a command to wake her?" Snively asked as he turned around to face the walrus. "No, you just have to nudge her awake." Walking up to the chamber and coming up beside the overlander, Boomer reached out a hand and gently tapped the young rabbit on the shoulder. "Bunnie…Bunnie it's time to wake up."

Waiting for a few moments, it didn't take very long for Snively's patience to grow thin. "Is there a problem Doctor Boomer?"

"She's just asleep, she'll come to, don't worry," Boomer replied. "She better, otherwise I'll have no choice but to send an unfavorable report to your superior," Snively warned.

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Boomer nudged Bunnie again, causing her ear to twitch. "Bunnie, it's time to wake up, please wake up!"

Rolling his eyes, Snively promptly shoved the walrus aside. "Enough of this drivel, wake up you catatonic sack of fur!" Smacking his hand on her cheek several times, this finally caused Bunnie to stir.

Her eyes slowly opening, the walrus breathed his relief as Snively went near to examine her again. "Greetings Rab-bot, how are you feeling?" Expecting an immediate response, he was surprised that she was still just lying down and batting her eyes, trying to adjust her vision.

"I asked you a question Rab-bot...and I expect you to answer it." His tone cold and stern, this caught the girl's attention, causing her eyes to shift at him.

Blinking a few more times, Bunnie tried to sit up, only to feel something heavy on her left arm. Trying again, she slowly reached up for the glass door that stood open with her right hand and pulled.

Struggling, she gradually felt herself getting stronger, as her muscles were starting to adjust to her weight. She pulled even harder, starting to regain some feeling into her left arm; she then used it to lift herself up by grabbing the side of the chamber.

With a bit more effort, she finally managed to sit up, albeit, with her head bent down as if in a dazed stupor. Satisfied with this, Snively continued. "Well then, seeing as how that she's at least coherent enough to move, I might as well give you some credit...but can she function properly?"

Still relieved; if not somewhat nervous, that "Bunnie" was conscious, Boomer decided to start with a physical. "Um, Mr. Snively-"

"_Sir_! _Snively_! Doctor Boomer, you _will_ refer to me as _Sir_ Snively, do I make myself clear!?" His finger pointing dangerously at him.

Boomer swallowed another lump and nodded. "Ye-yes S-sir Snively...um, may I ask permission to do a physical examination to ensure that Bu-er-Subject Rab-bot is of good health?"

Snively eyed him menacingly, before nodding in agreement. "Hm, you may proceed, but let me remind you that Doctor Robotnik is not a very patient man and will be needing his personal bodyguard to report to him within the hour, understand?"

Boomer nodded. "Absolutely, all I need to do is run a physical and see if she's at working order and her programmi-"

"_Just do it_! I've wasted enough time being here already. I will now leave you to your own devices but remember, with_in_ the hour!"

Nodding silently, Boomer watched as Snively walked away with his guards and exited the room, leaving just him, Bunnie and the unexpected visitor.

Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, Boomer then turned to look at Bunnie, who was already surveying the room.

When her eyes landed on him, she just stared at him with a blank expression on her face. Tenderness began to well up inside him as he felt somewhat sorry for the unwitting girl. "_Don't worry kid...it'll be okay..._"

"You might as well come out," he called out to Sonic; who was still in the ventilation, without looking away from his ward.

* * *

**Here you are gang, another look into Ultimate Mobius. First things' first:**

**Greta the Deer (Age 17): Basically the not-so-sweetest girl next door. She's bitter, hot-tempered and downright irritable if you get on her bad side, but don't let that fool you, she might not be the sweetest candy in the jar but she'll definitely stick by you in a pinch.**

**Fred the Lemur (Age 21): The only thing you have close to a health nut. A vegan all the way, Fred is the kind of guy who you just can't eat meat with without getting a hearty lecture of how better vegetables are for your body. You'll probably be better off eating a granola bar whenever he's in the vicinity.**

**Myron the Pig (Age 19): Not exactly a slob, but quite the contrary, Myron is a neat freak, and whether you like it or not, will always ask you whether you've taken a bath or sanitized your hands, otherwise, he'll never give you a handshake. Still, he's a nice guy, and will come through no matter how messy it gets.**

**Boomer (Age 19): Reserved**

**"Bunnie Rab-bot" (Age n/a): Reserved**

* * *

**Well, that's pretty much it. See ya next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie Publishing.**

* * *

"_Who are these two and why are they even here working for Robotnik_?"

About 5 minutes had gone by since Sonic came out of the ventilation shaft and became acquainted with Doctor Boomer and Bunnie Rab-bot. Normally he would abscond himself for breaking out of position to side-track with complete strangers, but remembering that he had been in tighter spots before, one little bout of gallivanting wouldn't hurt.

Eyeing the rabbit carefully, he could tell judging from her appearance that she wasn't far off from his age group; probably about 16-17 give or take, but what really caught his attention were her unique…features.

The young rabbit was of average height; by mobian standards at least, had sun corn blonde fur, emerald green eyes, and short hair, but what was most surprising out of all were her left arm and both legs from the waist down, all of which were robotic.

"Okay, first thing's first, who are you and what in the hell is she supposed to be?" Sonic asked carelessly, causing Boomer to give him a look.

"I'd be careful on how you address Bunnie Sonic."

"Oh sorry, but I-wait...how do you know my name?" His suspicions arose, he readied himself to bolt at any moment in case the walrus was about to rat him out.

"Who _doesn't_ know you; priority one hedgehog, I hate that hedgehog. Robotnik yammers on about you so much it's practically his mantra."

Sonic grinned in pride as he polished his fingers on his chest. "Well, I suppose a person of my notoriety wouldn't be that much unheard of, what with me being a major pain on Robo-butt's neck every now and again."

"I'll say, and to think here you are talking to me. The name's Boomer by the way, it's a real honor." He held out his hand to shake his, only for Sonic to step back.

"Easy there guy, I've never exactly rubbed elbows with any of Robotnik's lackeys, and I'm definitely not starting now."

Boomer lowered his hand and nodded. "Not the trusting type…good, in these times trust might as well be an exorbitant luxury."

"Hey can you blame me? So anyway, what's up with her, and why isn't her roboticization complete yet?" He crossed his arms as his eyes went back to Bunnie, with the latter staring back with the still blank expression on her face.

"That's because she was never roboticized to begin with, those are manually implanted cybernetics."

Sonic's eyes widened. "What? Are you serious!?"

As his gaze went back to the cyborg, his shock quickly turned into concern. "As if Robotnik hasn't gone far enough…"

"Actually, he appointed me to implant them," Boomer said casually as he took out a pen light from his pocket and turned it on, only for Sonic to grab him by the collar and draw him close face to face.

"_Why_!?"

Panicking slightly, Boomer began to sweat as he stared into the hedgehog's fiery green eyes. "I-I was just following orders…I-I didn't mean to hurt her…not that she felt any pai-" the hedgehog proceeded to drag him near Bunnie, who was still sitting idly on the bed in the chamber and surveying the room with an almost childlike curiosity.

"Not feel any pain? _Look at her_! Just look right at her and tell me she's not in pain!"

"She's not! Look if you let me go I'll do a physical on her, please!"

Hesitating, Sonic remained silent as his gaze shifted back and forth between the two.

"How do I know you're not going to do anything else to her?"

"Look, I never wanted for it to be this way either but I had my reasons!"

...

"Okay, I'll let you go...but first you have to agree to a few conditions."

"S-Sure, anything!" Boomer felt Sonic's grip tighten.

"Explain to me why you're here and working for his royal rotundness and why he wants _her_ to be his personal bodyguard?"

"I will, now…can you please let me go, I'd like to start if you d-don't mind." Releasing Boomer from his hold, the walrus sighed in relief and resumed with his task, while Sonic leaned against the side end of the chamber.

"Okay, pal…start talking, and don't even think about calling in for your buddies, unless there's already a surveillance camera around here."

"There aren't any surveillance cameras. I'm actually required to send in a video report of what I do every 15 minutes or so, since Robotnik can't be bothered to monitor me constantly."

Slightly relieved at that, Sonic allowed Boomer to initiate his examination on Bunnie, who proved somewhat reluctant, forcing him to struggle with her a bit all the while dodging her robotic arm, which might as well be a blunt weapon as she swinged it at him.

"Y-You see, I come from the Northern Tundra, that's where me and my family used to live, o-on Walrus Island."

"I heard of that place. It fell into Robotnik's hands not long after starting his global campaign."

"Yeah well, as it turned out, we were smacked dab right in the middle of one of the most ideal spots for him to settle a base on."

Ducking from another swing, Boomer tried even harder to calm Bunnie down. "Not to mention the value he saw in enslaving my people, what with our resources and manpower."

Seeing that Boomer was in a pinch, Sonic decided to help him with his patient. "So how do you fit into this?"

"While rounding us up to be roboticized, me and my dad decided to gather what little we could of the herd and fight back."

"And?"

"Well, you can pretty much guess how that turned out."

"No surprise there, so what happened to you and your dad?"

Boomer didn't answer, as he was finally able to check Bunnie's eyes, having managed to get her under control.

"After we failed to defend ourselves, me, my mom and my brother Skeeter were caught and sent to the cells. The adults were first and the kids meant for later, so she went bot before us," his voice trailing off, he tried to fight back a few tears as he worked.

"What about your dad, did he get roboticized too?" Sonic asked, with Boomer turning to face him with a solemn look, which the former took the hint on.

"Sorry…"

"So anyway, my brother and I were scared, I mean _really_ scared because we thought we were gonna be next. Instead Robotnik decided to put us and the rest of the kids to work in one of his camps."

Remembering his mission, Sonic interrupted the walrus with another question, "Say Boom, you wouldn't happen to know how many concentration camps there are, do you?"

"There are at least four that I know of. The one where we used to work in was at the western part of the city, why?"

"Nothing...uh-continue."

Taking out a stethoscope, Bunnie became jumpy at the sight of the instrument, forcing the two to try and settle her down again as her whimpers were starting to get louder. "So there we were, gathering up some junk parts like we always did for the first few weeks. Even though my brother was still a kid, he tried to help me out, but of course being the eldest, I had to look out for him, you know?

Boomer stopped for a moment to massage his eyes. "It was pretty hard at first, there was barely any food or water to go around and sometimes the bots would force us to work overtime. It was only after I found a busted up cruiser that I got an idea; salvage any working parts that we could find and build an escape vehicle. It was a long shot sure, but anything to get out of there."

Sonic nodded, sympathizing with the other boy as he knew full well what kind of hardships the siblings must have experienced. "Little did we know that Robotnik had surveillance all over the place, but instead of catching us then and there, he decided to wait for me to finish, took almost a year too, only then did he sic some SWATbots at us."

"So where did you build it?" Sonic asked.

"We built and hid it behind a big mound of trash, and for added measure we draped some dirty blankets over it for camouflage."

"Then what happened?" Sonic moved in closer, helping him with Bunnie again, who was struggling to stand up, but seemed to be experiencing difficulty because of how unaccustomed she was of her now modified lower limbs.

"To put it mildly, he was impressed. Imagine me, someone with no formal education in the field of machinery being able to do that with barely any tools and equipment. He then decided to take me in and become one of his scientists; he figured that he needed an extra brain anyway."

"Huh, I never thought he needed one at all!" The both of them chuckled from the joke.

"He had another practical reason for it though. He figured that having a mobian of my potential working in his labs would boost work efficiency several fold, and as reluctant as I am to admit, he was right. The man has an eye for talent I'll tell you that."

"I bet…what about your brother?"

"Do the words blackmail and leverage ring any bells?" Motioning for Sonic to go for her legs, Boomer lifted Bunnie by her armpits, while the hedgehog huffed in exasperation as he struggled to lift them off of the bed, but only barely. Unfortunately, this caused her to go berserk again.

She started to scream, causing them to cringe and cover their ears. "Get down!" Boomer said out loud. "What?" Sonic replied, barely able to hear a thing as Bunnie's shrieks resounded throughout the room.

Running out of time, Boomer quickly grabbed Sonic by the arm. "Hey! What's the big deal let g-" throwing him under his desk table, he raised a finger up to his lips and shushed him to be quiet, which the latter understood and inched back.

At that moment, Snively's face popped up on the screen of Boomer's computer on top of the desk. "Doctor Boomer, just what in the world are you doing in there?" He asked in frustration, with the walrus trying to act as if everything was not out of the ordinary, save for Bunnie screaming at the top of her lungs.

"A slight setback Sir, but don't worry, all I have to do is plug her neural synapses into the machine and upload her programming, only then will she be docile enough to follow orders."

Snively cringed a bit from the noise as it started to irritate him, causing him to cover his ears as well. "Doctor Boomer, with the time that we've expended on this conversation, you could have already addressed the problem, _GET ON IT_!" The screen went black again, prompting Boomer to attend to Bunnie's hysterics.

_A few minutes later_…

Sonic was sitting on a chair from across the room as he observed Boomer do some last minute check-ups, all the while thinking back on what the latter said to Snively. "Neural synapses? Care to explain what that's all about Boomer?"

"Well Sonic, Bunnie here is kind of…blank. Her mind is still like that of a new born child; she's basically just acting on instinct, which is why I have to upload the necessary information into her brain for her to function properly at all."

"I'm sorry what?" Somewhat sceptical, Sonic stood up from his seat and went near Bunnie, who was innocently sucking on the tip of her right ear.

Nearing his face to hers, she caught sight of him and extended out her normal hand to touch his cheek out of curisoity. "What in the hell did Robotnik do to her? Did he wipe her brain clean or something?"

"Not exactly, but I have to upload these programs quick, otherwise Robotnik is going to roboticize my brother for sure if she remains this way."

"I don't know Boomer, something just doesn't add up, I mean why would Buttnik even need a cyborg for a bodyguard anyway? He has tons of bots already."

"That's something that struck me too, I mean I wanted to ask him why but…well he's not exactly one for entertaining questions."

Rubbing his chin in thought, Sonic tried to piece together this puzzle. "There must be something more to it than that, what would that egg head want with a bodyguard who's not completely a bot?"

Boomer on the other hand, was just about to go for the chamber's computer, only for Sonic to notice and grab his hand before he could upload the disk. "Whoa there pal, I don't think that's much of a good idea."

"Relax, these programs are just basic knowledge and everything she'll need to function normally, I was able to remove any that would render her obedient to Robotnik."

Letting go, Sonic gave him a thumbs up. "Cool, and then she'll be able to think for herself, right?"

"I hope so, that is if the data doesn't get corrupted along the way." Reaching for a compartment at the bottom of the keyboard, Boomer pulled out a long cable that had an Ethernet plug at the end.

"By attaching this at a port by the base of her spinal column, I'll be able to upload the data, simple as that. I just hope they don't catch on."

"Hey, if it'll help, why don't you come with me? We were planning on doing a big bust out anyway."

As soon as he heard the words, Boomer dropped the cable and turned to look at Sonic, his face going pale yet at the same time, he felt a slight glint of hope building up inside. "A…b-bust out?"

"You bet Boom; you, your brother and Bunnie are all comin' along for the ride, got any prob with that?"

"N-No, but, are you really-I-I-I mean how are you even going to-what if-"

Sonic quickly moved an arm around the walrus' shoulders. "Chill Boom, Sonic the Hedgehog's got your back, and if everything goes right with our plan not only will we be able to free some prisoners but we'll also be able to put a damper on 'ol Buttnik by trashing this place."

Boomer could hardly believe what he was hearing; a chance at freedom. Pausing to think about any drawbacks in this, he slowly turned to Bunnie, who was clapping her hands in delight at them and laughing at the scene in front of her.

Boomer just closed his eyes, smiled and nodded. "Nope…no prob at all!"

Grinning widely, Sonic snapped his fingers together. "Cool, now just fire up that disk and give Bunnie a crash course, 'cuz we are outta here!"

* * *

**Here we are gang! Character Bios time:**

**Snively (Age 35): Doctor Robotnik's nephew and right hand man. Real name Colin Kintobor, Robotnik made him abandon the name the day he took him in. Conniving, snarky and somewhat self-serving, Snively will jump at any opportunity to try and seize command of his uncle's empire, but of course not at the expense of his own life.**

**Doctor Boomer (19): A prodigy and one of Robotnik's chief scientists, Boomer's life took a rather drastic and unexpected turn the moment the despotic tyrant came along and ruined everything he loved. The only thing that's keeping him going and holding on to what little drive he has left is his brother, of whom he is hoping of seeing again.**

**Bunnie Rab-bot (Age: ?): Bunnie is special...not exactly by that definition, but she's certainly got potential. Her past as of now is unknown, and if she even has memories, then they're certainly pretty foggy. Don't underestimate her though, because she's chocked full of surprises.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie Publishing.**

* * *

"How many guards are there?" A female voice called out from an overturned SWATbot cruiser, all the while being careful to avoid detection by any of the security that were stationed outside of the camp gate.

"Not many!" Replied the lemur hiding under a large pile of junk not too far from where she was. "Probably no more than three…get down!"

Seeing a large truck heading towards them, he buried himself back into the pile while the other managed to slip through a broken windshield of the scrapped vehicle.

"_Getting hot in here, let just hope Elaine is having a better time than we are_!" The lemur thought, only to hear his communicator start beeping.

Pressing his index finger to his ear, he could clearly hear the slightly irritated voice of his friend, who was more than happy to express her displeasure at their situation. "_Fred, this is ridiculous, shouldn't we be where Elaine is to help her_! _We might as well be sitting ducks here_!"

Sighing silently to himself, he felt somewhat exasperated by his comrade's impatience. "Greta, for the last time, we're here as reconnaissance in case the bots start getting wise to the plan, so will you please keep it down, we're attracting enough attention as it is with the local parasites."

The truck stopped in front of the gate where it was met by two of the guards that were stationed there, with one of them stepping forward while drawing out a scanner from its wrist.

As the guard pointed it at the newcomer, it started speaking, "**_Present serial number for identification_.**" Its voice was deep and mechanical, with a monotonously cold tone that got Fred's fur to stand on end. "_Wonder what this is all about_…" peering through a small hole that he made, Fred could see the bots interacting with each other.

"**_Identification confirmed, proceed._**" Taking a few steps back, the guard bot turned to the one managing the gate and signalled for it to let the truck in.

As the gate started opening, Fred's anxiety heightened as the vehicle entered. "_Come on Elaine, hurry up_!"

_Elsewhere…_

If you were to take a look at a great big field and make a detailed note of it, you would most likely pay attention to the more distinct details like the green grass; a few bushes and trees if there were any, maybe a couple of rocks protruding out of the ground and probably some local wildlife to complement the scenery.

Now, if you were to look at a concentration camp, things might be a little different. You would be amused to find that there isn't even a fresh blade of grass around, no trees or rocks, maybe a few weeds here and there, and; if you squint a bit, you might just see that there are a lot more people around than there should be. The reasons for this can vary, the most common one being that they might be there to be put to work.

This can come across as odd if you weren't well accustomed to the casualties of war, being that there are bound to be people who will always pay the price of being conquered by those who wish to make use of them for their own agenda; be it for their manpower, intelligence, or simply for the sake of forcing them to abide by their will.

This is an equally simple truth that almost all of the Freedom Fighters were aware of, with three of them trudging their way through the rough and barren terrain that was littered with garbage.

Elaine the Otter, who was accompanied by her friends; Myron the Pig and Lauren the Albatross, were struggling to make time as they still had much to do and so many to save. "I suppose I don't need to give you guys another briefing on what your roles are, do I?"

Going ahead of them and being as vigilant as possible for any bots, Elaine could feel the fear of being caught building up inside her.

"Not to put a damper on the festive mood Elaine but, couldn't the princess have given us a more…sanitary route for us to take?"

"Quit your whining Myron and focus, we could be swarmed by bots any second we stay in one place so we have to move, only a few more miles left and we're there. Besides, this is the best route Sally could have given us on such short notice."

Quickening her pace, Elaine motioned for them to catch up with her. "See that dim light up ahead, it means we're close, it's coming from the floodlights stationed around the place. If we hurry then we'll be able to monitor any activity until midnight."

"We're kinda cutting it close already boss lady, look!" Pointing up, Lauren managed to spot two cruiser bots from a distance. Seeing this, they all made a break for it to steer away from range of sight.

Her heartbeat racing, Elaine prayed that the bots managed to miss them, as she knew all too well how sharp their optics could be.

Fortunately, she was able to find an old storage locker lying on the ground. It looked pretty beaten up, but otherwise large enough for her to fit in.

Prying it open, a foul odor escaped from the inside and made its way to her nostrils. "_Phew_!_ Either something died in here or Robotnik has some pretty raunchy underwear._" briefly considering her options, she sighed to herself as there was very little time for her to have any choice. "_Suddenly, I'm thinking Myron is making a hell of a good point about all this._"

Taking out her handkerchief, she quickly made her way inside and closed the doors. "_If I make it out of here, I'm gonna have an even broader appreciation for hygiene…if I make it out._"

With the smooth humming getting closer, Elaine could feel the night air entering through the small gap between the doors, which cooled the sweat on her forehead as her eyes darted rapidly, her muscles starting to ache as she struggled to stay still.

Controlling her breathing through the handkerchief, her thoughts fell on her two companions who she expected managed to find places of their own to hide in.

After a few seconds had passed, the engine noise from the bots started to fade, and it was at that moment that she opened the door just slightly to take a look outside.

Greeted by the night sky, she sat up and caught site of the bots flying away. After they disappeared into the darkness, she quickly scrambled out of the locker, but in her haste had her foot caught at the upper shelf.

Catching herself with her arms before she could fully hit the ground, Elaine cursed at herself before getting back up and slipping her handkerchief back into her pocket. She then pressed her ear to activate her communicator. "Myron, Lauren, do you copy? Over."

With some static in the background, Elaine could only make out the distinct voice of Lauren. "Are they gone boss lady?"

"Yes, where are you? Is Myron with you?"

"Negative, I lost sight of him when I dug into this pile."

"Can you pinpoint me to your position?"

"Just follow the rustling."

Perking her ears up, she started for the nearest junk pile and moved on from there; walking around trying to catch wind of her friend's location.

Luckily she didn't need to search for long as she heard light scratching from her right. Carefully, she crept up near the source and found a large pile of old SWATbot parts.

Hesitant, Elaine pressed her communicator and gave the okay to Lauren, who subsequently revealed himself. Helping him up, she then asked for Myron, with the avian pointing to a small tower of stacked storage boxes.

As they went near it, Elaine saw that the second box in the middle was lying on its side, while the opening was covered by a tattered old blanket, which she could have sworn was swaying unnaturally.

"I saw him go by that direction when I jumped in here, let's go check," Lauren said as he brushed away some rust and dirt.

"Alright, but keep your guard up, this place could be crawling with ritters," Elaine warned.

"Gotcha!"

Ritters; more of a nickname, are small robians who would lurk around dark corners and narrow spaces. At first glance, they don't seem like much of a threat to most mobians, but what makes them particularly dangerous is that they often act as as another form of surveillance around the city monitoring anything that was not under the SWATbots' radar.

"Bet you two mobiums Myron's in there!" Lauren quipped.

"Ha! Sucker's bet, he'd never hide in something that dirty!" Elaine said as she played along, aiming to alleviate their trepidation.

As if to shoot herself in the foot however, she went ahead of Lauren towards the boxes before stopping by a short distance. Turning to face the latter, she raised a finger to her lips while backing slowly to where they hoped their companion was.

Lauren nodded, as he lightened his footsteps and placed a wing on his holster, ready to shoot should anything other than Myron come out of the boxes. As Elaine reached for the blanket, she could hear the faint noise of panting behind it. "_Only one guy I know who can hyperventilate like that._"

Grabbing the bottom of the cloth tightly, she readied herself and Lauren by silently counting to three with her free hand. On cue, she pulled the blanket and tossed it aside before quickly backing away, and sure enough, there lay the hunched form of Myron, who was indeed gasping for air, greatly startled by the sudden appearance of his friends.

Lauren grinned triumphantly, "Well it looks like I'm two mobiums richer; you can pay me when we get back."

"_If_ we get back, don't count your eggs yet Lauren…no offense."

Elaine failed notice the albatross rolling his eyes as she helped Myron out of his hiding place, who squirmed a little as he regained his footing on the ground. "I'm gonna need a bath after this, it was nasty in there."

"You don't say." Seeing that all of them were in the clear and accounted for, Elaine gestured for them to continue on they were already nearing their destination.

Even at their location, they could already hear the sound of metal being ground and hammered, no doubt the recyclers processing the current quota of the workers.

"Just over that hill guys, but remember, we keep to the shadows, got it?" Elaine warned, afraid that even the slightest mishap could alert any unwanted attention.

The other two nodded, readying their binoculars as they followed their leader behind a row of scrap. "Here we go, and now to see what we have to work with he-oh God…"

What Elaine saw next was enough to make her look away, as the sight she was treated to was; to put it generously, heart wrenching.

Inside, everyone was hard at work gathering all that they could for the recycler, with the camp itself being at least 5-6 miles wide in diameter and stationed with SWATbots at all sides. Some of them could be seen riling the prisoners in or forcing them on which spot to work on. Those who were too weak or helped those who fell were tased and beaten.

A large truck could be seen dumping even more junk, with a few mobians standing by to gather and sort them out.

The Recycler itself appeared to be a large machine with a conveyor belt in the front leading to a hot furnace where the metal was being smelted, with a stockpile at the back to dispense the cooled down material shaped into small bars. All of it seemed to be managed by a computer, which was located at its side and was being guarded by a SWATbot.

Biting her lip, Elaine lowered her binoculars and placed them back into her backpack. "This is worse than I thought…we have to reach Fred and Greta."

Knowing that they were stationed by the gate, Elaine leaned forward as she pressed her communicator. "Fred, Greta, do you read me? Over!"

More static, but no reply. "Fred, Greta, do you read me!? If so, please respond!" Waiting for a moment, Elaine began to fear for the worst, only for her thoughts to be interrupted by a muffled voice.

"_Elaine_…? _Elaine_…_you_? _Wh_…_ou_?"

Recognizing that it was Fred, Elaine decided to sneak in a bit closer for better reception. Motioning for Myron and Lauren to follow her, they crouched over the hill and found a small ditch. "_Perfect_!" She thought before pressing her communicator again. "Fred, do you read me?"

"_I read you, patch everyone through, we're gonna need it_."

Each of them immediately took out their communicators to adjust the frequency to open all channels. As soon as Elaine placed back hers, she was met with the whining of an ever happy young deer.

"_Well it's about frickin' time_! _I'm sweating my ass off in here_!"

"Glad to hear _you're_ fine Greta," Elaine said sardonically, while at the same time feeling relieved.

"_So are we going in or what_?"

"Not yet, first, we have to wait for the go signal from Sonic. He still has to plant the grenades inside the Shadowbot factory to create a commotion large enough to divert a sufficient number of bots away from the camp. Only then will we make our move."

"_Great, so what do we do until then_? _Crossword puzzles_?"

"We stick to the plan no matter what!"

"_Are you kidding me_? _That hedgehog must be chowing down on a chili dog right about now for all I care_. _I mean, are we really going to trust him to do his part_!?"

"_I_ trust Sonic Greta, and I am not going to put our lives or the lives of the prisoners in jeopardy out of recklessness, so keep it down and stay in position!"

Getting the message, the deer calmed down as she peered through the crack by the bottom pane of the one way windshield. "_Okay Elaine, there are about three guards by the gate, what have you got_?"

Elaine turned to Myron, who managed to count as many as he could stationed inside. "Eight of them."

"_Damn, guess we're gonna need one hell of a distraction if we want to have any chance of getting in_._ What about the prisoners_?"

"No total yet, but if you want a rough estimation, I'd say about…twenty."

"_Twenty_? _How in the hell will we even manage to evacuate _that_ many_!?"

"We'll think of something…wait, how big do you think those trucks are down there?"

"_I don't know, probably enough to fit a full grown terrapod, why_?"

…

"_Hold on…you're not really thinking of…_"

"Exactly Greta, now all of you listen up, I think I've got a plan that might just work, but I'll be needing all of you to cooperate and do exactly as I say."

"You got it boss lady!" Lauren said.

"Will this involve having to get dirty?" Myron asked.

"_I'm all ears Elaine_!" Lauren said.

"_This is so not gonna work…then again; I don't have any big plans for tomorrow so…_" Greta quipped.

Elaine smiled as her squad mates voiced their approval, at the back of her mind however, there was still one thing aside from a few that was still bothering her.

"_Hope you're having better luck then we are true blue_."

* * *

**New character bios:**

**Lauren the Albatross (Age 18): Lauren is the more light-hearted member of Squad 10. Always willing to crack a joke every once in a while to keep his friends' spirits up. After all, a good laugh is always healthy, right?**

* * *

**Thanks for all of the readers who support me. As well as those who have submitted their reviews:**

**ironfalcon433**

**alwaysdoubted**

* * *

'**Till the next time gang!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie Publishing.**

* * *

The mind is a unique machine, if you can call it as such. Throughout the ages it has proven to be the most versatile tool for survival. Always innovating, improvising and adapting to any and all situations, but alas, it is far from perfect.

* * *

"So…is this safe?" Sonic asked, leaning against the chamber's computer, waiting for Boomer, who was busy setting Bunnie up for the neural up-link.

"That's the tricky thing about being a scientist Sonic, you're never quite sure how things will turn out until you try them out yourself."

"Never was really good on that whole science gig, but when it comes to trying something new I'm always game. Will this take long?"

"Hopefully not, you mentioned being under a schedule."

"Yeah, by midnight we bust everyone out of the northern camp…you mentioned your little bro's in the western camp right?"

Boomer didn't answer, as he was still busy trying to plug Bunnie up to the machine, with the rabbit curiously observing him as he worked. "I'm trying not to think about that right now…and there we…go! Sonic, stand by the computer and listen to my instructions."

"You got it Boom."

Taking out another black flash drive from his pocket, Boomer plugged it in one of the outlets by the keyboard. He then walked up to Bunnie, who was thankfully still calm.

"The flash drive will serve as a back-up in case the data in the disk is corrupted. Okay Sonic, punch in the access codes I gave you and fire it up!"

"You got it!" Pressing a few keys, he stopped just short of accessing the mainframe. "Um…Boom, you uh…wouldn't mind helping a hog out, would ya?" He grinned in embarrassment while rubbing the back of his head.

The walrus just smiled, as he patted Bunnie on the shoulder before walking up to the computer. "It's easy, just type in the access codes like so and press enter, then the machine will do the rest."

"Uh, I knew that," Sonic denied, before looking away from them to watch the door. "Shouldn't you be giving Buttnik a video report right about now?"

"Hardly, this project is too important for him to have me waste any time, even for reports. I'm supposed to just give one after everything's done."

"Well you better hurry it up, 'cuz Snively might just pop out of that door any minute."

"Gotcha, okay Bunnie sweetie, this'll only take a few minutes. Now I don't want you getting riled up on us right now okay? I'm here for you." Comforting her gently, Bunnie continued to remain calm, smiling in return as she put her hand over his.

Sonic smiled at the scene as it pulled on his heartstrings. Glancing at the screen, he saw that the progress bar had popped up. "It's working, is it okay for her to be awake for this?"

"Its fine, she's not gonna feel anything, and when it reaches 100%, we'll be good to go."

"Excellent, now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to make a last minute phone call." Walking away from the chamber, Sonic pressed on his ear to activate his communicator. "Elaine, are you there? Do you read me? Over!"

Some mild static, but otherwise the otter could still be heard through. "_So…c…are…Sonic_! _Sonic, is that you!? Aw, you had me worried there._"

"Hey its cool Elaine, listen, I got some mondo news for you that you are _not_ going to believe!"

…

"_Try me_!"

_A few minutes later_…

"_You're right, I _don't_ believe it_! _Where are you_!?"

"In Boomer's lab, we've gotta get them out of here Laine."

"_We'll see what we can do; now it's your turn to listen to me, because I've got a plan to help us liberate everyone from the camp, you with me on this_?"

"All ears!" Sonic glanced towards the two on his right, seeing Boomer being busy on the computer while Bunnie just sat idly by her bed in a seemingly trance like state.

"_We're already here standing by for you, Greta and Fred are at the front gate keeping watch for any trouble while we're here at the back surveying activity inside._"

"Can you give me the low down?"

"_Not good, it's worse than we thought Sonic, most of the people here are children and the elderly, and they're being pushed hard to work by the guards stationed around them, wish you were here to see it._"

"I can imagine, so how many are there?"

"_At first we had a rough count of about twenty, but after a while we managed to rack up over thirty of 'em._"

"_Thirty_!? How in the hell will we manage that!? We'll be lucky enough to clear ten without any bots on our tail!"

"_Ah, but that's where the plan comes in, we simply hijack a few of the dump trucks that bring in the junk and we load 'em all up for transport, easy_."

"Too easy, what if Buttnik sends in reinforcements?"

"_Did you plant the bombs in yet_?"

Sonic bit his lip. "Not yet, I've been kinda preoccupied, but don't worry, while I was here, Boomer showed me the schematics on the joint and I took the liberty of pinpointing exactly where to plant all of the bombs to do the most damage."

"_That's great_! _The only thing that's missing now is exactly _how_ we'll hijack a couple of trucks from under the SWATbots' noses._"

Sonic rubbed his chin in thought, as they were steadily nearing their deadline. "Boomer, how much progress is left on the upload there?"

"About 47%, we have to wait a little longer," Boomer said as he typed rapidly on the keyboard. "While we're at it, I decided to back up some files into my spare hard drive; I bet the Freedom Fighters will be wanting them."

Sonic gave the walrus a thumbs up. "Way past cool Boom! Elaine, just hang on for a few more minutes while I blitz my way through the factory and set it up to blow!"

"_But what about the trucks_?"

"Hm…I got it! Boomer, once you're finished with the data, I'll be needing you to wait right here for me while I go help my friends. Until I come back, pack up everything that you're gonna need along with Bunnie, you think you can do that?"

Boomer paused for a moment in thought, as he glanced at the screen and found two progress bars; 56% for Bunnie and 34% for his back up. "I think I can, but…"

"But?"

"What about…my brother?"

It was Sonic's turn to pause, as the thought of Boomer's brother quickly raced through his mind.

"Boom, I…" he stopped as the walrus held his head down.

Boomer continued, "I…I always thought I was gonna see him someday if I did everything that Robotnik wanted of me…things that I'm not too proud of…but now I have a chance to make up for all of that…and if I can only save him, then… that would be the first step…Sonic…would you…?"

Sonic laid a hand on the scientist's shoulder. "It's a long shot Boom, I mean he is at another camp west of here, and tonight we were only planning on hitting the north."

Hearing this, Boomer's expression resigned. "Then…I-I can't, I can't leave him here!"

Unsurprised by this, Sonic knew that Boomer wouldn't agree without compromise. "Look Boom, we can just stand here and waste time all night, but I have a job to do, and I'm being honest here when I say; I'm not really sure what to do about your brother, but I can promise you that somehow, someway, we'll save him! I don't know how, but we will…just have faith!"

Looking up from his stupor with a thin smile, the words he heard alleviated him in a way, but were still not enough to otherwise reassure him. "Okay…okay, I'll…try to be strong. I'll just do my part here while you do yours."

Satisfied, Sonic patted him on the shoulder. "You do that big guy and while you're at it, make sure that Bunnie will be up and ready when we take off, because this place will be flying higher than a mobian blast kite!"

Hopeful again, Boomer dug a hand into his lab coat. "Here Sonic, take this, this key card will give you complete access around the factory except for the main power grid, because only the main personnel; namely Snively, are the only ones who have full authority of entering it, you're gonna have to improvise on how you're going go through that."

"Sweet, well good luck Boom!" Sonic said as he raised his hand forward, which Boomer took immediately into a tight handshake.

Boomer gave him a thumbs up. "You too Sonic!" And with that, the hedgehog jumped back into the ventilation shaft, leaving a rather uneasy walrus behind. "_Skeeter_…"

_Shortly_…

Sonic was blazing through the ventilation passageway, with his anti-gravity shoes drowning out the noise of his steps.

"_Gotta do this quick, I can't fail, I won't_!_ Too many lives at stake_!" Stopping by a large grill, Sonic peeked through the bars and saw several Shadowbots walking by, with a door across from him.

Reminiscing on the blue prints, Sonic could only guess that it was the armory. "_Cool, more fireworks_!" Waiting for a few seconds, Sonic scanned the hall for any more bots, before taking a few steps back. "_Hope my practicing's paid off._"

Taking a deep breath, Sonic started to concentrate. Slowly building up momentum, his body began to vibrate, which increased by each passing second as he struggled to maintain his focus at the same time. "_Here I go_!" Making a break forward, he seamlessly passed through the bars and the door, narrowly avoiding another Shadowbot that was about to enter the hallway.

Finally inside, his body relaxed and immediately fell back to the ground, panting heavily with exhaustion. "_Well that's one way of breaking and entering_." Sitting up and wiping some sweat off his forehead, Sonic was then treated to a most wondrous sight. "_Ooh_! _Look at all these toys_!"

Right in front of him were an assortment of weapons lined against shelves on all four corners of the room, with even more at the center being held up on brackets. "_Robotnik you sly devil, you've been holding out on us haven't you_?"

Taking out his flashlight, he stood up and ran all over the room, carefully inspecting several of the armaments at super speed. "_Man, this is some armory, they've got it all; hand lasers, plasma cannons, grenades…hello_!" Noticing a box of plasma grenades, Sonic was tempted to pilfer some of them to further his sabotage gig. "_Well I guess this solves my problem, nothing like a little bit of supply and demand._"

Quickly snagging a handful into his backpack, Sonic went through to the rest to see if he could find anything else that was useful. "_This ought to give Buttnik a run for his money._"

Continuing to scan the room, a small ventilation shaft caught the hedgehog's eyes. "_Small enough for me to fit_, _let's just hope it'll lead me to where I want to be-the machine responsible for manufacturing the Shadowbots._"

Once again in a passageway, Sonic sped his way through a few turns and corners, stopping every once in a while to check and see if he was getting close.

After one more stop, he began to hear the faint sound of rumbling. Opting to investigate, he carefully made his way near the source, because where there was rumbling, there was bound to be activity, which only meant more bots.

Seeing another grill, he crawled down to its level and peered through, only to catch sight of none other than Snively. "_Well, well, well, if it ain't the little guy himself, wonder what he's up to._" Listening carefully, Sonic saw that the midget appeared to be talking to someone by a computer, but he could barely make out what he was saying or exactly who the other person was.

Getting up and looking around, he saw another passageway by his left. Heading straight for it and taking a right, he dashed forward through a curve until he arrived by another shaft.

Getting down all fours, he listened closely to what Snively was saying now that he could hear him more clearly, but he still couldn't see who he was talking to because of the man's head blocking the screen. "Well sir, everything seems to be going according to plan as you have predicted."

"_Excellent Snively._"

"_That voice_…" Sonic's eyes widened; only one person he knew had that voice, which he recognized all too well; cold, grating, and most of all, devoid of anything remotely resembling empathy.

"_Did the destroyed SWATbot dispense the intended data_?"

"Yes sir, the Freedom Fighters took it hook, line and sinker. Several surveillance bots have picked up a few heat signatures that are unrecognized by the database."

"_Good…tell me, how has our little side project gotten along_?"

"Progressing impeccably, in a matter of hours you will finally have your bodyguard, but if you don't mind my asking sir, why a cyborg?"

"_Pragmatism; why trade intelligence for brute strength when you can have both. The Shadowbots, while having a much higher intelligence quotient than the average SWATbot, still falter compared to the flexibility of the organic brain…I'm sure you're familiar with that, eh Snively_?"

"Indeed…and what of Sonic sir do you suppose he is here as well?"

"_If there is one weakness I know of that _insufferable_ hedgehog, is that he can't resist being a hero. Especially when it comes to saving all of those poor, helpless prisoners,_" the mocking tone of compassion caused Sonic to bare his teeth, "_he is here…I can feel it in my bones…_"

Snively continued, "Hm, regardless, I think it would be better to have more bots in the vicinity of the northern camp. That way, we'll be able to secure the intruders _and_ Sonic; in case he decides to show that is, wouldn't you say so sir?"

"_Care to wager on that nephew_?"

"Depends…what are the stakes?"

"_In case he doesn't show and you manage to capture the Freedom Fighters, you will gain access to the latest line of Shadowbots, with the new modifications of course._"

"And if I am wrong and he does show along with rescuing the prisoners and his friends, then what?"

"_I will revoke your access to 30% of Robotropolis._"

Pausing in thought, Snively tapped his chin with a finger before conceding. "Fine, you have yourself a bet sir...better than having to clip your toenails…" his voice trailed off as Robotnik continued.

"_Once midnight strikes, that would be the best time for them to make their move, and then, we'll have a little…surprise for them._"

Robotnik quickly typed something into his computer. "_Snively, why don't you check on Doctor Boomer one more time, just to make sure he's fulfilling his end of the bargain._"

"Right away sir…by the way, what of the walrus' brother, didn't you promise him that you wouldn't roboticize the poor lad in exchange for his services?"

"_As a matter of fact I did; just a week ago._"

Immediately after hearing this, Sonic's temper flared up. "_No_…_Robotnik you son of a bitch_!"

"Now why in the world would you even go back on your word sir? He did everything you asked diligently." Snively grinned at the redundancy of his question.

"_I did no such thing, I specifically agreed that no harm would come to the boy, and frankly…roboticization doesn't really strike me as harmful_," he chuckled maliciously at his remark, which almost drove Sonic over the edge.

"Will that be all sir? Or do you still have room to gloat?"

"_No, no…that will be all, see that Project Rab-bot is working at optimum efficiency and have her report to me shortly, those Freedom Fighters will make excellent test fodder for her_," he chuckled again, this time with deep sadistic glee.

Horrified by what he had just heard, Sonic wanted to go straight back to Boomer to warn him. "_The mission_! _I have to complete the mission…all I have to do is plant a couple of the magplas grenades and it's bye-bye Shadowbots.__"_

Looking to his left, he got up and walked towards the nearest shaft, which fortunately was right above his target. "_Time to start the party_!"

Procuring one grenade from his backpack, he carefully aimed and dropped it near the conveyor belt of the assembly line. "_That's one_!"

Taking a left curve, he spotted another opening. Looking through it, he spotted the machine below him that removed the impurities from the mobibendum. He flicked one near the open gears. "_That's two_! _Only three more and we're bailing big time._" With two more on each hand, Sonic moved to another one. "_If the schematics are on the money, it should be right here._"

Looking through the grill, he caught sight of the machine that assembled the bots' skeletal frame. "_No time to look for another one, gotta juice and warn Boomer_!" He flicked one right near its conveyor belt before slipping the remaining grenade back into his backpack.

_Elsewhere_…

Back at the lab, Boomer was packing several papers into a briefcase, along with a few flash drives and his spare hard drive as well. "This should be enough! You ready Bunnie?"

Turning to the young rabbit, he smiled as she was standing on her own now, although she still had a blank expression on her face while staring back at him. "Bun...nie…who…who is…" somewhat surprised by her still childlike demeanor, Boomer wondered if the transfer was indeed successful.

"_Must be a delay in the neural feed, gotta give it a little time._"

As he closed the case and locked it shut, Sonic jumped out of the ventilation shaft and landed right in front of him, startling the walrus into dropping the case. "Sonic! That was quick, what are you doing back he-"

"No time Boom, we gotta juice and jam pronto because this place is about to get hot." He stopped just short of catching Bunnie, whose curious gaze fell on him. "Whoa! Is she…is that!?"

"Sonic I'd like to formally introduce you to Bunnie Rab-bot, Bunnie this is Sonic the Hedgehog."

Curious, Sonic circled around to examine her closely, while her gaze did not stray from him. "Hm, is she all set?"

"Kinda, there seems to be a delay on her neural uplink, so she's still a little fuzzy in the head, so what happened?"

"_It's a trap_! Robotnik _wants_ us to rescue the prisoners, just so he could lure us in; we have to go right now to warn the others!"

"Okay, come on Bunnie." Picking up his briefcase from the ground before gently grabbing her normal hand, they were about to start for the door, only for Sonic to stop him midway.

"Boomer wait…first you have to know something."

"What?"

Unsure of exactly what he was about to tell him, Sonic inhaled deeply before looking straight into his eyes. "It's about your brother…"

* * *

**No new character bios today! Just because Robotnik appears here doesn't mean I'm gonna spoil his profile, he's not in-person after all.**

**Till' next time gang!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie Publishing.**

* * *

"What…"

Sonic looked on as his words sunk into the walrus, with the latter not moving at all for the past few minutes since the former had explained it to him.

"You're joking…heh…hahaha, man Sonic you sure are a kidder, now come on, let's get out of here…" as he wheeled around to head for the door, his arm was caught by the hedgehog.

"You really think I'd be kidding about something like this?"

Sonic spun him around to look him in the eye, and was slightly surprised that Boomer was smiling.

"Boomer…your brother-" a sharp laugh emanated from the walrus before Sonic could finish explaining again.

Boomer proceeded to pat him on the shoulder. "Oh mercy, stop with the jokes already man, seriously, right now isn't exactly the time to be lifting up my spirits if that's what yo-"

He was cut off by Sonic forcefully grabbing him by both shoulders. "Boomer! Listen to me, your brother is-"

"STOP! SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP! DON'T SAY IT! DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT! DON'T-DON'T-DON'T-DON'T-DON'T…don't-don't…please…" he trailed off before falling to his knees, unable to fight back the tears as he broke down and cried.

Sonic could only watch as his friend wailed in grief. "_I can't do that anymore...been there too many times already._" Remembering that they were running out of time, Sonic knelt down and gently laid a hand on Boomer's shoulder. "Boom…we have to go."

Boomer continued to cry, blind to the world around him as he barely heard a word, prompting the hedgehog to repeat himself, "Boomer, we have to go now!"

"Y-you go…and take Bunnie with you."

"I can't do that."

"Just leave me here dammit! I mean-what good will it do? If I leave it won't make any difference, it won't bring Skeeter back, it won't bring mom...or dad back…I have nothing." Burying his face in his hands again, Boomer cringed even lower.

Fighting back the urge to hit him, Sonic instead grabbed the distraught scientist by his collar, hoisting him up just high enough for him to make eye contact. "Listen Boomer, either you snap out of it right now or we'll all be done for. You said it won't make much of a difference even if you leave, well let me break it to you pal, it makes _all_ the difference. Just think of all the good you'll do as a Freedom Fighter, with your help we might even bring the bastard down and find a way to free all of the Robians."

For a moment, it seemed that Boomer didn't even hear him; his eyes bloodshot and wet with tears, he slowly looked away from Sonic and glanced at Bunnie, who looked on with deep concern.

Looking down, he gently removed Sonic's hands from his collar and wiped away the remaining tears away. "O-okay…just let me…put…myself back…together…"

As Boomer picked up his briefcase from the ground, the alarm unexpectedly went off. "That doesn't sound good!" Sonic said as he guarded the door.

Rubbing his nose, Boomer motioned for Bunnie to come closer. "It-It must be your friends, Snively must have gotten sick of waiting."

Just as the overlander was mentioned, his voice suddenly resounded from the intercom. "_Attention all available SWATbots, report to concentration camp designation number 3 at once, there are intruders, Freedom Fighters! Capture them all immediately and bring them to the roboticizer_!"

"Guess that's our cue!" Taking out the key card from his bag, Sonic ran it through the scanner next to the door for it to open.

Carefully looking outside for any sign of bots, he signaled for Boomer and Bunnie to follow him. Hand in hand, the two trailed behind the hedgehog closely as they made their way through the hallway, which was illuminated by the red light of the alarm.

Even though Boomer was still somewhat disheveled by the revelation that he probably would no longer see his brother the same way again, he helped direct Sonic on where to lead them; with a few minor close calls.

"The exit should be around here Boom, you sure we're going the right way?" Sonic asked as he glanced back, with the walrus still looking a bit worse for wear.

"It's been a while since I left this place, I practically live here as a prisoner myself."

"Then we have to hurry, if we don't get out in time the mission could be done for and we'll all be screwed." Seeing a narrow hallway up ahead, Sonic beckoned for the two to quicken their pacing, only to stop midway as heavy footsteps could be heard from around the corner. "Crap, hide!"

The group quickly found and hid behind a large crate inside a nearby narrow corner, while Boomer raised a finger to his lips to quiet Bunnie down. "We have to get the hell out of here now, Elaine and the gang'll be swarmed with bots if we don't hurry," Sonic whispered to them.

As the footsteps got closer, Sonic held his breath, ready to attack in case they were ever seen. Not long after, a Shadowbot appeared, but luckily he ran passed the corner they were hiding in.

Heaving a sigh of relief, he took out the detonator from his back pack. "Boom my friend, I think now would be the right time for me to activate the magplas." Crossing his fingers, his thumb felt heavy as he pressed the button.

_Elsewhere…_

Snively was busy typing away at his computer, having just put away the intercom, he wasted no time in deploying a small battalion of bots to where the intruders were. "Looks like I've got a bet to win, and a few Freedom Fighters to play with," he grinned evilly as he activated the monitor screen to Boomer's lab.

"Doctor Boomer is Project Rab-bot ready?" Standing by for the walrus to respond, he repeated his question when none came. "Doctor Boomer, are you there? Don't test me!" Still nothing.

Rubbing his chin, Snively adjusted the camera angle of the computer and surveyed the room. "What in the world?" Right as he was about to direct security towards the lab, two small explosions snapped him out of focus.

"The hell?" Followed shortly by another one, and another. Jumping off his seat to investigate, his concern grew as heavy grating noises began to resound throughout the room. Running towards the source, he was shocked to discover that the conveyor belts had stopped working and the gears of the refinery had clogged to a halt.

Seeing this, he took out his communicator from his pocket. "Repair bots, report to my position immediately, three of the main engines and the refinery are in need of maintenance." Walking closer, he spied something peculiar that was spread wide against the end of one of the belts.

Not minding the sparks that were flaring from the machine, he pinched the mysterious compound to examine it, only to be surprised by how sticky it was. "Oh great…" with his fingers stuck, he tugged lightly at it to test how strongly he was adhering, before being startled by another explosion above him, this time it was a malfunction.

More irritated than scared, Snively pulled even harder. Not long after, five small probes flew in and surrounded him. He then motioned for one of them to help him with its laser. With precise aim and another drastic pull, Snively was liberated from his bind, causing him to fall hard on his back.

After a moment of regaining his senses, he stood up and breathed in frustration before realizing that it was sabotage. He activated his holowatch. "Doctor Robotnik? Doctor Robotnik sir, are you there?"

"_What is it Snively_?" Robotnik's voice could be heard from the screen, but his image was obscured by the lack of light.

"Sir, the Shadowbot factory has been sabotaged; all of the machines have been backed up by a highly strong and adhesive substance."

"_Hm, no doubt one of those Freedom Fighters, are the repair bots working on it_?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid that if they were to remove all of it away they might end up doing more damage than necessary. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before and the lasers barely seem to be having any effect on it."

There was another explosion, causing Snively to duck and back away from the machines. "Sir, I think it would be wise to call for an evacuation."

"_Very well, just make sure to have Rab-bot in for transport._"

"I'm afraid that there's another slight problem to that request sir."

"_What Snively_? _I hope you're not implying that something went wrong with my bodyguard_…_are you_?"

Swallowing a hard lump in his throat, Snively tugged on the collar of his shirt. "I-It would seem that Doctor Boomer has vacated his laboratory and Project Rab-bot is…nowhere to be seen," his voice trailed off in a high shrill, waiting for the inevitable.

"_Snively_…"

"Yes, D-Doctor Robotnik sir?"

"_If you somehow manage to sort out your little dilemma over there report to my chamber immediately after…where we're going to have our usual discussions, are we clear_?"

"(Ulp)…yes sir." Cutting off the feed, Snively went back to attending to the repair bots. By then, a creeping thought came to him, "_I wonder…_"

_Back to our heroes…_

The three were now nearing the exit, with Sonic close ahead and still on the watch. "Boomer, Bunnie, hurry up, we're almost there." Seeing the door up ahead, Sonic readied the key card in his hand, only to stop dead in his tracks as a Shadowbot appeared from the corner to intercepted him. "**_Halt_!_ Surrender mobian_!**"

Fearing for their lives, Sonic pushed the other two out of the way as the bot fired a warning shot with its arm cannon. "**_I will not ask again after this hedgehog, surrender and I will show mercy_.**"

"Mercy? Is she hot?" Dodging another one, he then delivered a spin dash attack at the bot's torso, but barely even managed to dent it.

"_That mobibendum shell is a real pain_!" Evading a few more blasts, Sonic countered with a flurry of kicks to its head, managing to shatter its visor.

Dazed, the bot backed away to stabilize its vision, before firing a random shot, which ricocheted a few times until. "Bunnie look ou-_argh_!"

"Boomer!" Sonic wheeled around and ran up next to the walrus, who had pushed the rabbit out of the laser's path just in time, but at the consequence of being hit.

"M-My leg!" Boomer choked in pain.

Sonic bent down to examine the injury on Boomer's left leg, which gave off a little smoke as it burned from the intense heat. "Boomer! Are you alright!? Stay with me man! We're almost out of here."

Boomer struggled with the pain. "N-No, just leave me here, it's…too late!"

"There's no way I'm leavin' ya! After everything you've been through you can't give up!" Looking up at the still standing bot, Sonic shoved his friend away towards Bunnie's direction, who was still on the floor, in shock from the sight of her father figure cringing in pain.

Slowly, she looked up and turned to the one responsible, who was struggling to block Sonic's attacks as the hedgehog pushed him back furiously for hurting his friend.

"Y-You!" Bunnie whispered, her voice trailing with rage as she stood up.

As if by instinct, she raised her arm forward and it instantly morphed into a small hand cannon. It had a vertically narrow muzzle at the end and seemed to take up most of her lower arm, only ending until her elbow. Carefully aiming it, she set her sights on the bot's head before firing a compressed ball of blue light at it.

Once it made contact, something unexpected happened, it cracked. The mobibendum; considered to be the strongest metal alloy on Mobius, actually cracked from that simple attack.

"What the!?" Sonic looked on in amazement as that one single blast did what he or any of the other Freedom Fighters had barely succeeded in doing, even the Shadowbot was surprised as the side of its face started to crumble.

"**_This is inconceivable, my armor is made out of the finest mobibendum alloy, and you managed this much damage with just one attack_?**"

Facing the cyborg, the Shadowbot proceeded to scan her and realized who she was. "**_You are supposed to be Doctor Robotnik's bodyguard, why are you helping these organics escape_?**" But Bunnie didn't listen, her anger outweighing her sense of reason at that moment.

Aiming for it again, the bot was forced to defend itself as it fired another blast, which the rabbit evaded with surprising agility. She then retaliated with her own, hitting it right at the stomach. "**_You have damaged my central power core, activating emergency backup_!**"

"Oh no you don't!"

Seeing an opportunity as the armor started to crumble, Sonic gave it one final spin dash. "**_Ac-Activa-ting…em-m-m-mer-p-p-p-power-_**" Giving it everything he had, Sonic increased the velocity of his spin as he went through various wires and circuitry, pushing the bot to fall on its back as its stomach was being torn apart bit by bit, with the friction causing sparks to fly.

Another moment went by before the Shadowbot finally went offline, as Sonic was able to reach its spare power core located just above the main and destroy it, along with some of its other components. Jumping out of the hole that he made, he fell down in exhaustion, breathing heavily as Bunnie went near him.

Taking her hand, Sonic smiled in gratitude as she helped him up. "That was some save Buns, I owe you one!"

The rabbit smiled in response, before her attention quickly shifted back to Boomer, who was still on the ground trying to endure the pain he was in. Running up next to him, Sonic motioned for Bunnie to cradle him up on her thighs so he could apply first aid.

He quickly took his kit out of his backpack; which he had set aside for his brief skirmish, Sonic then applied some anti-inflammatory ointment on the burn, which seemed to be about third degree, but was otherwise not that severe.

After bandaging it, he motioned for Bunnie to help sit him up. "There you go Boom, do you think you can still stand?"

"I-I think so…still hurts like hell though." He inhaled sharply while grasping the now bandaged leg, before Sonic lifted him up by his arm over his shoulder.

"Man! You think you could cut down a notch Boom?" Sonic said, gasping from the weight.

"Comes with being a walrus, hedgehog," Boomer said with a thin smile, before turning his attention to Bunnie, who still looked worried. His smile widening a bit, he cupped her cheek gently in his free hand to reassure her, which she returned by holding it with both of hers.

Moments like these however, are almost too good to last. "What a very touching scene."

Recognizing who it was, Sonic didn't even bother to turn around, save for a glance at Boomer, whose short lived relief had been replaced with fear.

Snively was clapping slowly, a smug smile on his face with two Shadowbots by his sides; arm cannons at the ready.

"I hope you don't mind a brief intermission Sonic, no? Then why don't we head straight to _act two_!"

* * *

**Thank you for all of the support and stay tuned for more Ultimate Sonic, I promise the adventure is just gonna get way past cooler!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie Publishing.**

* * *

"_It's official; the universe really has it out for me_!" Sonic thought as he wheeled around and stepped back, with Boomer in tow and Bunnie just behind him.

In a narrow hallway of the factory located just near the exit, the trio were standing a few feet away from the diminutive second-in-command of Doctor Robotnik, who was accompanied by his two personal Shadowbot guards. "It really surprises me to find you here of all places Sonic, it really does. Tell me, what exactly is your business here? And please don't spare any of the details…or else."

Sonic flashed him a grin. "Well Snively, if you must know, I just gone and started my own little grand tour of the city, 'cause I've been running rampant trying to find a snazzy new summer home to blow off some steam every once in a while, and I figured, hey; why not this 'ol factory, Buttnik won't miss it."

"I'm sure he won't…now if we'll just cut the chatter I'd like you all to follow me, you know the drill, single file; _march_!"

But before Snively could signal the Shadowbots, Bunnie blasted each of them in the head with her arm cannon, resigning them to the floor, and leaving the overlander in the middle; panicked and cringing in fear with his hands over his head. "OH GOOD LORD DON'T HURT ME!" Peering an eye up, he fell down on his knees when the rabbit directed her weapon at him, causing him to shrill and beg, "Oh for the love of Mobius please spare me!"

Rolling his eyes, Sonic always found it a bit redundant whenever he had to deal with Snively. "Sorry Sniv, but we're kind of in a rush, but don't worry, I'm sure your uncle will just _love _how you valiantly tried to stop us.

"Oh and uh, you might want to go back to the main control room; wouldn't want this place to go sky high now, would ya? Toodles! Come on Bunnie." Waving at him mockingly before going out of the door, with Bunnie following shortly after retracting her cannon.

Snively's fear was quickly mixed with contempt at this display of mockery. "_Just you wait hedgehog_!" he muttered under his breath, seething with rage.

_Minutes later_…

As they made their way out from the building, the trio were immediately spotted by security. "Bunnie, cover us!" Sonic ordered the rabbit, only for the latter to stare at him in wonder. "What the? I told you to cover us!"

"She's doesn't understand that much yet Sonic, there seems to be a sort of...delay in her learning faculties," Boomer explained as he struggled with the pain in his leg.

"Oh great!" Thinking fast, an idea arose. "Bunnie! Look to where I am pointing." Carefully directing her attention to the bots that were about to close in on them, Sonic gestured for her to shoot them with her cannon, which she understood with a nod.

Seeing that that was taken care of, Sonic went back to focusing on carrying Boomer, who was also doing his best to move while Bunnie was busy dispatching as many bots as she could; and with surprising efficiency at that.

"I gotta hand it to her, she's good."

"I'll say, so about your friends-"

"It won't be long now, the factory will give us even more cover when it blows up, which should be right about…" as if on cue, a large explosion could be heard from the roof of the building, with a black cloud of smoke billowing aggressively as the wind carried it freely.

Sonic glanced at his watch; 11:56. "Crap, we gotta move, how much do you weigh?"

"About a hundred and ninety pounds, why?"

Sonic wheeled his head around to Bunnie, who had already lessened their pursuers by about a small handful. "Add her in and we've got…hang on tight Boom!"

Reaching into his backpack, Sonic took out the one thing that he was hoping to save during the escape; a Power Ring.

Curious, Boomer eyed it closely. "What is that?"

"You're about to find out, Bunnie get over here!"

Having just blown another bot out of the sky, Bunnie turned around and came up next to the two. Tossing the ring to his other hand that was holding Boomer up, he held his free one out to the rabbit. "Take my hand and whatever happens don't let go!"

Not fully understanding what he said, Bunnie nonetheless grabbed the hedgehog's hand tightly, before being surrounded by a blinding gold light. "**_Time to juice and jam_**!"

_Back at the camp_…

Hearing the explosion from the distance, Elaine knew that that was the signal to start the action, but for some reason she was being hesitant.

"Elaine, it's now or never, we have to move fast or we'll lose this chance!" Lauren said as he armed his gun. "I know Lauren but we have to wait for Sonic!"

"Sonic would want us to go on ahead if he couldn't make it, there are only two trucks left, we have to do it now!"

Worried, Elaine looked around and caught sight of Myron, who was already readying his weapon by spraying it with his hand sanitizer. "Alright, the prisoners have already been taken into their cells, and most of the guards seem to have already left. Lauren, I want you to get up close and find the power grid for the electric fence and disable it, however you can, just do it fast."

Putting two fingers to her ear. "Greta, did you hear the explosion?"

"_Heard it_? _Bugged the crap out of me if that's what you mean; it looks like the hedgehog actually pulled through, how long you think 'till he gets here"?_

"Hopefully as soon as possible, because we're starting now, how are you and Fred holding up?"

"_We're good Laine, just waiting for the green light from you_! _Security's been lightened here at the front, guess that only means less trouble for us_," Fred replied.

"Don't bet on it, with Robotnik it's never easy, just…" Elaine was cut off by another explosion, this time one that was close by, followed by a loud echo.

"**_Yahoo_**!"

Regaining her bearings, she knew right away that it could only be Sonic. "It's about time you're here…so are these…?"

Brushing some dirt off of him, Sonic carefully set Boomer down against a broken down engine before wiping some sweat off his own brow. "Yup, these are the ones I've been telling you about Elaine; the big guy over here is Boomer while the other one is Bunnie."

"ROBIAN!" Lauren yelled, as he brandished his blaster at the rabbit, who readied her cannon in defense.

"_Whoa, whoa, whoa_! Hang on! Ease up guys, this bot chick is on our side!" Sonic explained as he jumped in between them. "Are you kidding me?" Lauren asked in disbelief.

"It's true Lauren, Sonic explained everything to me, with her on our side, we'll have more firepower to deal with the bots and make it out with the prisoners."

"No offense Elaine, but I'm not about to put my life and ours on the hands of a…whatever she is!"

"Cyborg!" Boomer corrected indignantly, not liking where this was going.

"Like you said Lauren, we're running out of time, and now that we have Sonic here, we stand as much of a better chance at completing this mission now than ever, so get in line and suck it up!" Elaine affirmed.

Grunting in defeat, Lauren eyed the newcomers suspiciously, wary of what they might pull if given the chance; especially the cyborg.

"So anything new Elaine?" Sonic asked as he was given the binoculars.

"Nothing much Sonic, but given our time frame, things could have been a lot worse."

"Yeah well they're about to get worse!"

"What do you mean?"

"Robotnik's done it again, the hacked SWATbot, the concentration camp, he set it all up! Buttnik _wants_ us to go down there to save everyone, and I bet reducing the security is just his sorry excuse for schmuck bait."

Elaine held her head down in disbelief. "It's Squad 4 all over again…so what are we gonna do now?"

"We stick to the plan, only this time, we're gonna adjust it a little. Everyone listen up, you too Bunnie!" Beckoning the rabbit closer, the other FFs tensed up as she approached them.

"Now wait just a damn minute here, we're not letting a newbie in on it. And just how sure are you that we can work with her? I bet they're in on this trap Robotnik's set for us!" Lauren said disapprovingly.

"Look Lauren, Boomer and I have been through shit, so now is not the time for that! We can discuss this when we're all done so shut up and pay attention!" Sonic said vehemently, glaring at the albatross to keep him in line.

"Alright, here's the plan, we go down there, but we'll need a distraction, Greta and Fred are up front right? So we're gonna have them go crazy and start a ruckus, while we sneak in, and I go through all of the cells and open them, while you guys hijack the trucks."

"What about the Shadowbots? We might just be in over our heads here if they arrive," Elaine said with doubt.

"Relax Elaine, that's where Bunnie comes in. You guys should have seen her when she blew one up with that arm cannon of hers, went through it like Swiss cheese!" Sonic made a whooshing gesture as he trailed off, causing the other two to stare in disbelief at them.

"You're kidding right? From what I remember, none of us have been able to plough through mobibendum, hell, we've barely even managed to dent it, how can she do it just like that?"

"I'm not sure, but explaining will have to wait. Bunnie, look I know that you don't really understand much of what I'm about to say, but here it is. You see those tall robots down there? Yeah, I want you to shoot them, you get it? I want you to…uh…pew, pew, oh God this is…um, robots bad, mobians good. Protect mobians, destroy robots!

It was like talking to a toddler, Sonic may well have already embarrassed himself in front of the others if the situation wasn't so serious, but so far he only managed to garner a stifled chuckle from Elaine, followed by Myron who was still cleaning his gun.

Bunnie just looked at him distantly, it was indeed true that she did not understand much of what he was saying, but she at least understood one thing, she didn't like the robots. "Ro-robot..bad…mo-bian…good…"

A bit hopeful that he at least got through to her somewhat, he felt relieved. "Yes, mobians good, robots bad! You get it?"

She nodded in agreement, before turning to the others and smiled. "_Awkward_," Myron whispered to Elaine, who simply nodded in response.

Elaine then forwarded the plan to Greta and Fred, who readied themselves as more bots were unexpectedly coming their way.

Another explosion went off in the distance, as Sonic, Myron and Elaine put their hands together. "We all know what to do!"

"BREAK!" They all said in unison as they broke away. Sonic went ahead, running at top speed with the electronic lock pick on hand, while the others made a break for the trucks which were right about to leave.

"Lauren, fly over the fence and take out the grid! We'll cover more ground for you!" Elaine ordered as they neared the fence; the SWATbots stationed started pelting them with laser fire.

Dodging them, Lauren nimbly leaped over the fence, using the updraft under his wings and using a somersault to land. With SWATbots drawing near, he took cover behind an old jet turbine before opening fire, managing to down a couple of them.

On the other side of the fence, Myron, Elaine and Bunnie were trying their best to give Lauren just enough of an opening through the guards that were bombarding him, all the while evading lasers aimed at them. "How long do we have to...keep this up Elaine!?"

"As long as it takes Myron, we have to get to the trucks no matter what!" Elaine said before downing a bot with a well-aimed head shot, followed by Myron who blew another one's chest out. "That's it! Go for it Lauren!"

Without wasting another breath, Lauren bolted out of the turbine and straight for the grid, which was located next to the Recycler, all the while gunning his way through any remaining bots. Feeling another updraft, Lauren jumped up to take advantage of it to go over one that almost got his head, with the blast just barely brushing his leg.

He then quickly wheeled around to double tap the bot at its back, before going on his way to the grid. After reaching it, he pried the door open with a swift kick, then pulled the lever down.

After giving the okay to his friends, Elaine moved forward to see if the fence was safe to climb. With the utmost caution, she drew her finger forward to touch it. When it barely made contact, she swiftly drew it back and repeated a few more times, before confirming that it was good.

As they climbed over, vehicles started to move, causing Elaine to think fast. "Lauren, intercept them!" Hearing the order, the albatross ran as fast as he could towards the trucks, building up just enough acceleration for him to hover in mid air, beating his wings as he tried to catch up.

When he flew near the driver's side, he drew out his gun just in time to place a well timed head shot at the SWATbot in it, before grabbing the door and blowing the other driver's head from across the second.

This caused the trucks to swerve out of control and hit each other to a stop, knocking the bird away to the ground. Fortunately, he was able to lessen the fall with his wings. Sitting up to gather his bearings, he turned back to give the others a thumbs up, which Elaine and Myron returned while Bunnie clapped happily.

* * *

On the other side of the camp, Sonic was spin dashing his way through a number of bots, ensuring that when the prisoners make a run for it, they wouldn't be caught in any crossfires.

As he neared the cells, he looked up and saw cruiser bots heading straight for them. "_If this is Robotnik's idea of a trap, he really needs to up his game._" Accelerating, he ran through all of the doors in a moment with the lock pick, resulting in all of them snapping open at the same time.

The cells themselves were all large enough to accommodate at least 10 prisoners, lined altogether in a vertical row of five, with the walls holed out to serve as windows, and finally the bars which were made of mobibendum that disabled any chance of escape.

"Everyone out, now!" Reluctant to break away from their huddled position, the prisoners made no attempt to move, even when Sonic beckoned for them to come out. "You're free! Me and my team are here to get you all out, now move!"

At that moment, it seemed all of them were fearful of going outside, unnerved of what might befall them if they did; no doubt having heard the disturbance and because many attempts had failed in the past. That is until a small cat girl stepped forward and went near Sonic to gently grab his hand.

Encouraged by this, she was shortly followed by a few of the elderly, then several adults. "Let's go! Anyone here who can lift their own weight help the disabled, come on, come on, we're running out of time!" As the prisoners made their way out and he handed the girl to her mother, Sonic ran ahead to where Greta and Fred were. "_Hope those two are okay_!"

_At the front gate_…

"How are you doing there Greta?" Fred said at the top of his voice, as they were under heavy fire from a small infantry, with the deer beside him behind a large pile of SWATbot parts.

"Do you even have to ask! I'm roasting here!" she growled as she was almost hit in the face. "Fucking machines!" Firing back in retaliation, she was able to take two down .

"I'm almost out!" Fred said as looked at the energy meter of his gun, drawing it back as he took cover.

"Yeah well look who's talking!" Greta said, herself also close to running out. "If this keeps up we might as well kiss our asses goodbye!"

"Then I guess this is it! I always imagined myself going down this way!" Fred said a bit disheartened, with his gun at the ready. "Not me, I don't imagine shit on how I'm gonna die!

"All I know is that if it means bringing Robotnik down, then I'll fight until I stop breathing!" Greta voiced out, before shooting a few more rounds to take out two more that were running near.

With the hope of a miracle at the back of his mind, Fred drew his gun forward at the ready, hoping that he could at least take more down with what little ammo he had left. "Here's to freedom Gret." He then pulled the trigger, but before the shot could land a hit, all of the bots were mowed down by a blue blur.

"Better late than never…" Fred muttered, having nearly averted his last.

"You guys okay?" Sonic asked as he helped the lemur up. "We'll be fine, so how's everyone inside?"

"Fine…if you can call it that."

"So what now Sonic, we goin' inside or what?" Greta asked as she put her gun back in its holster.

"We'll see if Elaine and the others managed to jack the trucks. I was able to get the prisoners out and the others are already riling them in for transport."

"Then we better make tracks," Fred said as they made their way back inside.

_At Robotnik's main fortress_…

"Well Snively…report."

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Snively stuttered trying to explain as best he could the situation. "Well sir, so far…we didn't manage to save the factory, we were able to minimize the damage so rebuilding it won't be a problem, but there is another matter…"

"And that is?" Robotnik didn't face Snively, as he was sitting idly by his chair watching the surveillance on C-Camp 3.

"The Freedom Fighters are in the camp and have succeeded in liberating the prisoners, what's worse is that they were able to dispatch most of the security."

"And?"

Snively sweated profusely now, terrified of what his other bad news might entail for him. "Project Rab-bot is with them…apparently she's on their side now alongside Doctor Boomer, with extremely valuable stolen data. Not only that…it-it would seem that she's somehow able to penetrate through the mobibendum armor of the Shadowbots."

"Is that so?"

Something was amiss, beneath his quivering demeanor, Snively was wondering to himself how his uncle could possibly remain calm after everything he's been told. Normally this would seem like a good thing, but to Snively, he knew that the good Doctor was up to something.

"I-If you don't mind my asking sir…h-how does all of this n-not…alarm you?" Taking a step back, he was ready for his uncle to lunge at him with the latest beating, only to hear something that he least expected.

"You're dismissed Snively."

At hearing that, the fear within him instantly vanished, replaced with something that he rarely ever felt; curiosity.

"Sir?"

"You are dismissed Snively," he raised his hand up calmly, "and attend to the salvaging of the factory. By the way, as per our agreement, surrender your key card to me for re-encoding." He then held his palm out.

Snively sighed, handing the card to him, who clenched it tightly as he withdrew his hand. Taking his leave, Snively glanced one more time at his uncle's chair before the door closed behind him; a chill ran up his spine.

Back inside, Robotnik was calmly lounging in his chair, watching as the Freedom Fighters were struggling to defend themselves and the prisoners all at the same time while loading them up on the trucks.

"Hm…yes…all according to plan," he grinned maliciously as he caught sight of Sonic on one of the monitors.

* * *

**Here is another chapter gang. Thank you for all of your support and I hope I will continue with this project.**

**Robotnik's character bio is currently locked. I am not going to spoil him as of now, but don't worry. You'll find out along the way so stay tuned. By the way, I added a little shout out here. It goes to one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. Robotnik gave the hint, see if you can figure it out. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie Publishing.**

* * *

"We've gotta clear the area before Robotnik sends in even more bots, so everyone get in the trucks ASAP, move, move, move!" Elaine yelled over the large group of mobians.

With Greta and Myron helping in ushering them into the readied vehicles, Sonic was on the lookout to deal with any unwanted interlopers. "Are they almost on board Laine?" he asked.

"Almost, a lot of them are either ill or disabled, but Myron was able to give them some much needed first aid."

Sonic pursed his lips. "_Something's wrong, I don't know what, but why does this all seem just a bit too easy_?" Suspicion overtaking his thought processes, he almost failed to notice two Shadowbots riding on cruisers coming their way.

"_Guess I'm gonna have to take that back, two Shadowbots are hard enough…then again_!"

Sonic quickly searched for Bunnie amongst the gathered crowd, spotting her sitting next to Boomer, who seemed to be tinkering with her robotic arm.

"Any chance I can borrow her for a few?" Sonic asked Boomer casually.

"Not at all, but I'm just doing some last minute maintenance to see if she's up to key. Why, what's wrong?" Boomer asked.

"Oh nothing much, just two Shadowbots heading towards us at top speed with guns a blazing, you know, just a wave of the hand and all that."

Boomer swallowed a lump in his throat "Then I better hurry, just a few more to adjust…and there! She's good to go Sonic; I just installed a new-"

"Explanations later, come on Bunnie!" Grabbing the rabbit by her normal arm, he quickly dragged her out of the crowd and pointed her at the two bots heading their way.

High on the alert, Bunnie quickly drew out her cannon, only this time she straightened her arm forward, followed by a small holographic targeting sight appearing by her left eye. Sonic whistled at the new modification as she launched an even bigger ball of blue energy at the approaching reinforcements.

In an instant, the Shadowbots were consumed by a blue explosion, which disintegrated them whole. Satisfied, Sonic patted Bunnie on the shoulder. "Just be on the lookout of any more bots Buns, while me and everyone else work, got it?"

For a moment, almost all of the people there were distracted by the sight, including Lauren who was sitting at one of the driver's seat, with his mouth agape in shock.

Bunnie turned to Sonic and nodded with a smile, then refocused her attention back at her task, while he returned to helping with the escape.

Nearby, Boomer was able to find an old metal pipe, which he used to crutch himself up on his feet. "So how did Bunnie's new sniper mode do, not bad eh?"

"Not bad? She was on fire! Those Shadowbots didn't stand a chance! Does she have any more surprises in store?"

"I think so, if I can just get through her encrypted security lock."

"What do you mean?"

"Robotnik was the one that designed most of the weapons that Bunnie has, even her particle cannon. Thing is, he locked most of the data of her entire arsenal inside her main hard drive."

"Hey just as long as she's already kicking butt on our side, she's good enough for me as she is, so how are ya feeling?"

Boomer gently rubbed his bandaged leg. "I'll live, but still hurtin' I guess…more inside than out…"

Sonic knew what the walrus meant. "Boomer, I'm sorry about..."

Boomer gave him a weak smile. "It's okay…at least he's still alive…sort of, not that he remembers me or anything else…I just wish I could have done more to help him."

"Robotnik forced you to work under him; doing anything of the sort would have been a huge risk. So don't blame yourself, the big guy's the one you should be gunning for!"

Seeing his point, Boomer nodded and limped his way to one of the trucks, which was already half full of people. "Just promise me when we get to the other side you won't do anything stupid," Sonic said to him as a way of parting.

"Nah, I'll probably just jump off a building when we get to wherever we're going," he chuckled at his joke.

Sonic laughed nervously when he heard this, concerned on how the walrus was really holding up. "Uh, yeah…right."

As Boomer made his way inside the vehicle, Sonic flash stepped to Elaine, who was just finishing up with the last bunch. "So any ideas how were going to get the hell out of here without being blown to smithereens by Robotnik's _numerous_ security along the way?" she questioned rhetorically, still unsure of how they were going to drive the trucks out of the city.

"Got it covered!" Sonic answered, causing Elaine to raise an eyebrow at him. "Don't look at me that way Laine, just trust the hog!"

Elaine's eyebrow didn't go down, as she was still a bit sceptical of how "the hog" was going to ensure their escape.

Pushing the last of the prisoners inside, Elaine heaved a sigh before closing the door shut, while Myron was locking the other. "Sonic, whatever happens tonight, I just hope we make it in one piece, so whatever you're going to do, you better not mess it up!"

Sonic gave her a salute. "Yes ma'am!" Before disappearing with a flash step. As soon as everything was set, Elaine jumped into the front seat next to Lauren, while Greta and Myron went with Fred.

Noticing that something; or someone, was missing, Elaine looked back and saw that Bunnie was still standing guard. Feeling some sympathy for the cyborg, she called out to her. "Bunnie! Hey Bunnie! Come on, you can ride with us!"

Surprised by this, Lauren felt it to intervene. "Elaine! Are we really going to hitch her a ride?"

It was his turn for Elaine to raise an eyebrow at. "I know it may seem that we can't trust her Lauren, but she and Boomer have risked a lot to help us, now it's our turn to help them."

Despite his burgeoning compulsion to disagree with the otter, the albatross knew better than to waste their already tumultuous window of time. "I just don't know Elaine, I mean I'm just not sure if we can trust her to not turn on us!"

"Well she hasn't, and Sonic's word is all I've got and I trust him, plus we're in too much heat to be debating over this." Seeing her resolve, Lauren slumped in defeat. "I know, but if she turns that cannon of hers on us then I won't hesitate to blast her head off, got it!?"

"Got it!" Elaine reluctantly agreed, doubtful if she could even go through with such an act.

Even though she had practically spent half her life in the throes of war, Elaine had never grown accustomed to the thought of actually having to kill another living person. Even if said person happened to not be fully organic, she was still able to see something in Bunnie that she had rarely come upon in such hard times; innocence.

As Elaine popped the door open for the rabbit, the latter was hesitant to climb inside due to the bird still glaring at her, with Elaine having to slap him on the shoulder when she noticed. "It's okay girl, don't mind Lauren, come on!"

Reassured a bit, she grabbed Elaine's hand and pulled herself inside, with the otter having to catch her breath after experiencing the sheer weight. Fred in the meantime, was getting impatient, prompting him to honk the horn of his truck. "Are there any problems there!? Get moving already Laine!"

Lauren rolled his eyes as Elaine made room for Bunnie. "There, comfy!? Now let's get going before even _more_ trouble gets here!"

Giving the signal with a toot of the horn, Fred and Lauren floored it at the same time and headed straight for the gate, where Sonic was waiting for them. As they passed the blue hedgehog, Sonic ran up to the nearest one and jumped on top of the cargo box, where he surveyed the people inside.

Running up to the passengers' seat, Sonic saw that it was Fred driving. "So where have you been Sonic? Any news on 'ol iron grip?"

"Nope, and let's just hope it stays that way, speaking of which, where's Elaine?" Looking to his left, Sonic saw the other truck with the otter inside, with Bunnie sitting next to her and with Lauren on the driver's seat. "Guess that answers my question, 'scuse me!"

Readying himself for a jump, Sonic waited for the right angle for him to reach the other. Seeing a chance, he leapt with all his strength and landed on top of the truck's head, causing Lauren to swerve a bit to help ease the landing. "Hey watch it there blue, wouldn't want us to crash into anything, what with all the cargo I'm carrying!"

"Relax Laur, just make sure to drive as best you can, while I chill here for the view!"

"Aren't you going to get inside Sonic!?" Elaine called out from her seat.

"No worries Laine, I've got it covered, while I was inside the factory, I was able to snatch some primo contraband from their armory." He smiled wickedly as he reached into his backpack to produce a plasma grenade.

"Nice! Just be careful up there!" Elaine said as she strapped Bunnie in with a seatbelt.

"Will do, but I'd be more worried on the sorry bot to come close enough for me to knock 'em out of the sky!"

* * *

**Well that's it for now, since I still have work tomorrow. So far I was only able to read Sonic the Hedgehog 252 on YouTube. Feel free to look for it because it is as good as anyone expected it to be. Till the next time gang!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie.**

* * *

As both trucks were speeding their way through the streets, many nearby security bots reacted and gave chase. Standing by on top of the truck that Lauren was driving, Sonic struggled to defend their caravan from any hostile machines that went near.

Knocking or smashing them away with a good old fashioned spin dash, he would also jump off and ram head first to scatter or break them apart. Every now and then however, the bots would get a lucky shot, at one point almost getting Fred to careen off the road and into one of the buildings.

Elaine and Greta assisted in the skirmish, using any remaining ammo their lasers had left, they shot at and blew away as many of them as possible.

After kicking another bot into the curb, Sonic ran ahead of the caravan and wheeled around so that he was now facing the trucks while running. "Fred, Lauren, step on it will ya! They're gaining fast, and I don't know how long I can keep them away with just my bare hands! I'm gonna try and set up one last trap but that's it! You guys are on your own until then so I can take out any left, got it!?"

Both drivers gave the hedgehog a thumbs up and accelerated right past him as he stopped in his tracks. Taking out his last magplas grenade as well as the plasma, he detonated the former before tossing it in the air where it exploded and spread out and clung to opposite buildings, making it into a makeshift net.

He then threw the plasma grenade at the middle, but not before detonating it too. Satisfied, he ran back into the oncoming force of remaining security bots.

"Yoohoo! Over here you tin heads, hedgehog free for grabs!"

Garnering their attention, Sonic ran ahead of them at just the right pace so that they could keep up with him and straight into the trap that he had set. As he neared the net, he accelerated and ran over it by the wall of the building on his right.

Too late to stop or make a turn, the bots crashed straight into the net and caused the plasma grenade to go off through their combined weight, blowing most of them into scrap, and knocking away those that were left while taking damage from the debris.

Taking one last look at his work, Sonic grinned triumphantly as he ran at full speed to the others, who should already have passed the city's border by now.

Sure enough, Sonic could already see them at the distance once he reached over the walls. Catching up, they all disappeared into the wilderness of the Great Forest, leaving a portion of the city in ruin and diminishing a significant number of Robotnik's forces.

"WHOO! We did it, high-five Lauren!" Elaine held out her hand in delight, which Lauren slammed with a free wing, she then turned to Bunnie. "High-five Bunnie!"

Puzzled by this, Bunnie just stared at the otter's palm before looking at the latter, who withdrew and slumped in her chair. "Oh yeah, I forgot…"

"Forgot what!?"

Startled, Elaine sat up and saw Sonic hanging by the door. "Don't do that blue! Sigh…so, are we clear?"

"Crystal, the getaway of the century and all we have to show for it are two truckloads worth of freed mobians and a couple of extras." He eyed Bunnie, who was smiling at him before drawing him by the neck in a strong hug. "Yow! Ack! B-Bunnie, l-let go w-will ya!"

Almost out of breath, he pulled away and gasped for air. "Man, tired as hell and still somebody tries to squeeze the life out of me!"

Elaine chuckled before giving out a yawn. "You know, that was some break we had…it'll be good to catch some z's once we get home."

"Home," Sonic repeated dreamily, remembering his best friend Tails, his warm bed, maybe grab a couple of chilli dogs before hitting it and…Sally.

"Whoa, almost forgot, supposed to report straight back to Sally after we're done." Sonic said.

Elaine noticed the bags under his eyes. "It might be better if you hitch a ride with us Sonic, looks like you weren't kidding when you said you were tired."

"Don't sweat it, I think I still got some mileage in me, see you back at Knothole!" he jumped from the door and bolted ahead of them, disappearing into the darkness. With dawn fast approaching over the horizon, everyone was already overdue for a good long rest.

_Back at the Club House briefing room_…

"Let me get this straight Sonic, aside from the prisoners, you were able to rescue these two from inside the Shadowbot factory?"

"Yep."

"And this walrus just happens to be Robotnik's chief scientist and that…rabbit? Over there is a cyborg originally designed to be that bastard's bodyguard?"

"You bet!"

"And you don't find them all that suspicious?"

"If it'll make you feel any better I have them locked up in one of my Uncle Chuck's old faraday vaults. Place is reinforced with titanium in case they try anything funny, although I highly doubt that they'd even do anything at all."

Sally was sitting by the meeting table while Sonic was standing by the surveillance monitors, observing the two newcomers as they sat calmly together in their accommodations. "How did you even manage to get them in there in the first place, did they struggle?"

"Told them it was a waiting room, but I think Boomer's already figured it out by now that they're not exactly VIPs."

"Great, so tell me again, what exactly is…Bunnie? Is that her name?"

"Like I said, she's a cyborg, instead of being robotocized the "natural" way Robotnik had Boomer implant all of her cybernetics manually, if you know what I mean,"

"Dear God…I knew Robotnik was an asshole but that…that's just wrong."

"How do you think I felt when Boomer told me everything, and don't even get me started on his brother."

Sally's stomach turned, utterly disgusted by how low Robotnik had sunk after all the years of knowing him. "Okay Sonic…first things first, we have to keep them detained."

"What, why!?"

"Sonic, think about it, how do you think everyone in the village will feel if we let those two in? If what you say is any indication, Boomer is partially responsible for the Shadowbots and all of Robotnik's other weapons that he's developed for the past few years; that implicates him. And who knows how they'll react to Bunnie once they see her arm and legs!"

"Yeah I know Sal, but keeping them as prisoners? That doesn't seem to be any different from what Buttnik was doing to them a few hours ago."

"I know, but at least we'll be able to treat them better and keep them safe from the others. I've already ordered Squad 10 to keep their mouths shut, and if you were any more rational about this it's a damn better alternative than having them walk around with "kill me" signs on their backs!"

Sonic bit his lip, seeing the logic behind Sally's decision, but still felt it a bit bittersweet after everything that Boomer and Bunnie went through; being freed from one cage only to fall into another.

"Okay Sal, I get your point, but just promise me you won't be too harsh on them."

"Why Sonic, since when have I ever been harsh?"

"For as long as I've known you."

"Oh really, well given how were able to liberate a lot of mobians from Robotropolis, things are probably going to be running a lot smoother from now on. Settling them in will only be a minor issue since we have more than enough room, but I can't help but feel that some of them will be wanting to get in on the action of being an FF."

"And you'll let them?"

Sally tapped her finger on the table. "We'll see, it'll be nice to have some new recruits, but I don't want to risk anyone else's safety in a fight that isn't theirs."

"With Robotnik's global stranglehold, I wouldn't be that surprised if lot of people besides us have a bone to pick with egg head."

"True, but before we go into any further discussions. I'd like to personally meet with Doctor Boomer and his ward."

"No problem, just let me escort you to them your 'highness'," Sonic said as he bowed in a gentlemanly manner to the door, earning an amused grin from the princess.

* * *

"Uh...it's...um it's a pleasure to meet you y-your highness," Boomer introduced himself nervously. Being face to face with the leader of the Freedom Fighters that he had heard so much about wasn't exactly a walk in the park, instead, it made him feel awkward, considering that he had expected someone a lot more...imposing.

"The pleasure is all mine Dr. Boomer, I hope you and Ms. Rab-bot are comfortable, but please, just call me Sally," she accepted his handshake calmly, noting the sweat on his palm, "and relax, you'll find that we mean you two no harm."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that before Sonic told us to go into the 'waiting room'." He glanced at the hedgehog behind her, who just grinned at him.

Remembering Bunnie, Boomer motioned for her to come forward, with the rabbit cringing shyly in her seat; slightly afraid of the chipmunk.

"Don't be scared Bunnie, Pr-I mean-Sally just wants to talk to you." Gently grabbing her by the hand, he brought her near slowly, as he was still limping from his injury.

When she was finally in front of the princess, the latter outstretched her left hand to shake hers, obviously going for her still normal one.

Slowly complying, Bunnie awkwardly grabbed Sally's hand and gripped it tightly, who was a bit surprised in turn. "Hello Bunnie, my name is...Sally Acorn, I'm the leader of the Freedom Fighters and well...it's a pleasure to meet you."

As she finished, Sally tried to let go of Bunnie's hand, only for the rabbit to tighten her hold. Tugging at it, Sally began to squirm a little at her discomfort. "Bunnie...um, you can let go now," she trailed off as she continued to struggle, while Boomer and Sonic exchanged looks and could tell that something was wrong.

Worried, Boomer grabbed Bunnie by the shoulder. "Bunnie, what's wrong? Sally asked you to let go of her hand." He then went on to examine her expression and saw that it was blank, her gaze directed right at the princess, almost as if she was...

He gasped as he quickly came to a startling realization. "Sonic, pull Sally out quick! Bunnie's-"

The last sound that Sally heard before she went into shock was Sonic calling out her name in panic, that seemed to echo forever as everything was getting dark.

* * *

**Since I was free today, I decided to update earlier than expected. To all of my readers who are not aware; remember SatAM? Well good news, there is a group called FUS who have developed a webcomic that is a continuation of Sonic the Hedgehog DiC.**

**Now before you go and have any doubts, please understand that these guys are the real deal. Even though it is an unofficial continuation of the series, Ben Hurst; the writer and story editor of SatAM, was able to meet up with them with the early drafts and notes of the un-aired Season 3. All the while giving them full permission to use his characters and carry on his legacy (R.I.P. Ben, we'll miss you).**

**The story itself stays true to canon, with many callbacks from previous seasons, as well as fleshing out otherwise neglected characters and giving them more depth.**

**They are so hardcore and dedicated, that they are already in the making of their very own animated adaptation of the webcomic, which will essentially serve as the spiritual Season 3 that was not given the green light because of cancellation. They update every Friday or Monday, with 4 chapters going on 5. As well as side comics focusing on the other Freedom Fighters.**

**I have taken the liberty of advertising the webcomic here to give them more traffic and hopefully increase their fanbase to accelerate their progress (and maybe give them an itty-bitty donation). Feel free to google "Sea3on" and start reading. I have the utmost confidence that none of you will be disappointed.**

**Again, thank you for all of your support and here's to celebrating 20 years of the most way past cool hedgehog of all time!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie.**

* * *

"**Sally!**"

Sonic said in a panic as he pushed Sally backwards, causing the chipmunk to fall back and hit the wall, momentarily knocking her out. "Bunnie! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Bunnie Rab-bot, who just a moment ago had tried to electrocute the princess, retracted her mechanical hand and replaced it with a laser chainsaw.

Alerted by the weapon, Sonic quickly dodged the first strike and pushed Boomer out of the way in Sally's direction. "Boomer, get Sally out of here now! I'll try to stop Bun-whoa!" She swiped at him before he could finish, forcing him to crouch down and grab her by the waist, bringing the both of them down to the ground.

Boomer did as he was told as he helped Sally up, who was recovering her bearings from the impact.

Disoriented, Bunnie tried to regain her hold on the hedgehog but was stopped by a punch to the face, then another, and another. "Sorry Bunnie, but I gotta knock you out before you hurt anyone else!" Unfortunately, before he could bring down his fist again, it was caught by the rabbit with her organic hand, giving her another opening to thrust the chainsaw straight to his face.

Easily dodging it, he jumped away from her and landed in front of the two, his back facing them. "I thought I told you to get out of here!"

Boomer was frozen on the spot, shocked at what was happening. "There must be something wrong! Bunnie, why are you doing this!?"

Bunnie didn't answer, instead replacing her chainsaw with her arm cannon. "Crap!" Sonic said.

An explosion resounded throughout the tunnel, causing fragments of the foundation to crumble and debris to fly everywhere. Rotor and Sally desperately covered their heads as rocks and grime fell on them. "Sonic, if we don't do something we'll be buried alive. Take her down, but don't kill her!" Sally said.

"You don't have to tell me twice Sal. Spin and wind time!" Running at full speed towards Bunnie as she was just charging up another blast, he sidestepped and ran around her several times. This confused her as she could not get a clear target, with the hedgehog becoming a blur as he went.

As the air around her thinned, Bunnie clutched her neck as she was gasping for breath, all the while trying to get a clear shot at the elusive target, with her vision blurring as she was nearing unconsciousness. After a moment she fell to her knees, with debris flying all around the mini-tornado that Sonic was generating as he accelerated.

Sally and Boomer were able to shield themselves by hiding in the corner of one of the tunnels. Shortly, Sonic decelerated and skidded to a halt, revealing the incapacitated form of the cyborg on the ground lying face down.

"Bunnie!" Boomer ran towards his fallen ward and cradled her up. "How could this have happened? I swear Bunnie didn't have any priority commands installed into her!"

"Well whatever happened; better bring her back into the cell so we can sort this mess out," Sonic said before he turned to Sally, who was already typing away at N.I.C.O.L.E.

"Nicole, initiate repair protocol beta." After dispensing the command, the palmtop glowed green, causing the computer in the lab to react and open a small hatch next to the keyboard. Small spider like machines immediately emerged in large numbers from the opening, and crawled around the walls surrounding the group, beginning the repairs on the damaged interior.

"That oughta save us a lot of time, now, what to do with Bunnie." She looked down on the helpless figure in Boomer's arms.

The walrus looked up pleadingly. "P-Please, don't punish her, I-I-I don't how she could have done that, but I'm sure she wasn't in control of her actions!"

"We know Boomer, don't worry," Sally said gently, her scowl softening.

"Looks like Buttnik left us a little surprise after we got back from the mission," Sonic said emphatically.

"I'll admit he almost got us this time," Sally rubbed her chin, "or maybe he almost got me."

"What do you mean Sal?" Sonic queried as he caught her eye.

"Bunnie only reacted when I came to greet her, Robotnik must have installed a failsafe command that would activate in case she ever came into contact with a trigger."

"Possible," Sonic scratched his head in wonder, "but that still doesn't explain one thing, how in the world was Buttnik even able to install such a command without me and Boom knowing. We were the only ones with her the whole time."

"Not sure, but at any rate we need to detain her fast or else," Sally said as Sonic flash stepped to Boomer's side to assist in carrying Bunnie.

Soon, Bunnie was safely back in the vault; lying on a bed that Sonic pushed in, and hopped up on sedatives through an IV. Boomer was directed back into the lab, where he sat down in front of the table where his briefcase was comfortably resting.

"I'm really sorry that it turned out this way," Boomer said dejectedly, his guilt bringing itself out.

"You better get over yourself Doctor Boomer, none of us expected or wanted what went down back there. Robotnik has always had a way of playing people to his advantage. We've pretty much gotten to the point where can expect anything from him," Sally said.

This relieved the tension in Boomer somewhat. "Okay…then I guess that just leaves me to find out what he did that made Bunnie go all Trojan horse on us."

"We'll let you work on that Boom, but just to be sure, you're gonna need some help," Sonic said.

"What kind of help?" Boomer asked.

"You'll see," he then pointed to Sally, "you keep an eye on things here Sal while I get Tails."

"You got it, there's a plethora of critically valuable data here that I want to go through. If anything, it'll be crucial in our fight against Robotnik." Sally said as she helped Boomer with his documents.

"Cool, hang tight boom, drinks are on me when I get back." And with that, Sonic was off, back to Knothole to pick up his best friend, whom he knew to be one of the smartest people that he can trust and rely on.

"He just never slows down does he? I've never seen anyone as hyper as him," Boomer said as he sorted his flash drives.

Sally laughed, "Just stick around a lot longer, you haven't seen anything yet. Sonic is all about hyper, but sometimes I just want him to slow down for a few moments to go through that thick head of his. It drives me crazy sometimes."

"Mmhmm, do you mind if I plug in? Gotta go through my files and see what I do with them." Boomer stood from his seat, holding a black flash drive in his hand.

"Sure, you need any help?" Sally said as she was using N.I.C.O.L.E. to scan through several papers without looking away.

"I'll be fine," Boomer said as he walked up to the computer. The machine was fairly modern for its time; if not a bit quaint, and arguably large; an older model by the looks of it. Not as sleek or hi-tech as the equipment that he was accustomed to back at Robotroplis, but still within his degree of skill to work with. Still, it appeared to be heavily modified.

He could recognize several exterior parts as having originated from the city, no doubt stolen via raids, but he could also make out some that were older yet familiar at the same time.

"Whose lab is this?" Boomer asked.

"Hm? Oh this lab belonged to Sonic's Uncle Chuck, one of Mobotroplis' lead researchers." Sally answered as she went through more papers.

"Considering that most of the equipment here is over half a decade old, I'm impressed that they're still compatible with what we currently have."

Sally smiled, "Uncle Chuck was a genius Boomer, possibly one of the best minds on the planet…there was also another if I recall," She scratched her left temple, "I think his name was…Gerald, but that was years ago and he retired not long before Robotnik took over."

Moving on from his spot, he activated the computer from its hibernation. After it fully loaded, he plunged the device into the nearby outlet and ran through his files, all of them containing plans and schematics for weapons, transport vehicles, etc.

However, a thought arose at the back of his mind as he worked.

"_Gerald…why does that name sound so familiar_?"

* * *

**Man oh man! Sorry it took me this long to update. This chapter is just a breather from all the crap that they've been getting...sort of. There are also hints and plot points here that will be expanded upon in the upcoming chapters. So stay tuned.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie.**

* * *

Tails' arrival could not have been more needed. At first, Sonic and Sally had to explain everything to the young fox, and made him promise to keep it under until the time was right, or at least until tensions had gone down for them to have more leeway with the issue. After the introductions, Bunnie; who was still unconscious, was brought into the lab for examination while still under heavy sedatives.

"So this is her? This is Bunnie?" Tails asked as he was looming over the rabbit, still lying idly on the bed.

"Yep, and Boomer here is her caretaker/parent, doesn't get any more awkward than that, am I right?" Sonic said as he walked over to Sally, who was still hard at work with one of the schematics for a new hover car.

"So…how's your head?" Sonic asked.

"Still sore, but I'll live. Speaking of which." She quickly punched him in the gut, causing him to reel back and grimace.

"I guess…that makes us-even!" He wheezed as he rubbed his sore abdomen. Sally grinned at him.

"Well what else would you expect from pushing me up against a wall like that?"

"Come on, it was either that or roast chipmunk for dinner tonight, your choice Sal."

"Uh hu, Tails come over here and help me with this." She beckoned the fox near and handed him a few papers.

Sonic grumbled as he walked away from the pair, turning his attention to Boomer, who had already taken off his lab coat; which was in tatters, and replaced it with a teal bomber jacket. A utility belt was strapped around his torso, going from his shoulder and around his waistline.

A red, overturned baseball cap lay snugly on his head. "Whoa Boomer, check you out. Lovin' the new look man!"

Boomer grinned bashfully at the remark. "The lab coat was getting a little stuffy anyway. Thanks for bringing Bunnie over," he laid a hand gently on the rabbit's head, "I really appreciate it, seeing as how we only have each other now."

"Boomer, here at the Club House, everyone is welcome, and thus family. So you got me, Sally and Tails now too." He patted the walrus on the shoulder good-naturedly.

Ready to start, Boomer had Bunnie already plugged into the main computer console, with the rabbit on her side as her outlet was located at the base of her spinal column. "Now all we have to do is find the algorithm containing the command inside her hard drive and maybe find out what other goodies Robotnik's put under the tree for us."

Sonic barely listened, as he was already at the side of the room opening the ice box, and taking out 4 cold bottles of apple cider. He then opened and distributed them each to all present, with him taking a swig as he walked back next to Boomer.

"Is this gonna take long? Forgive me if I end up taking a snooze while bathing in the bore fest galore." He grinned at his quip, causing Sally to roll her eyes nearby.

"This is probably gonna take all night, I need you here to keep replacing the IV bags to keep Bunnie complacent." Boomer ran his fingers through the keyboard as he tried hacking through Bunnie's securities and firewalls, a task which was becoming increasingly difficult with such limited resources at his disposal, and because Robotnik was an exceptionally skilled programmer.

If he was back in his old lab, he could have finished in half the time, but the price for such a luxury was far too expensive for his taste, and so he was taking his chances with his new friends.

"God, this stuff is a mess, and I'm not talking about the dirty kind. It's like I'm going through a maze here." He took a swig from his bottle and set it back next to him, with Sonic close to finishing his while sitting up on a nearby table. "Take your time Boomer, like you said, we've got all night."

"Rotor."

Sonic looked up and raised an eyebrow at the walrus. "What?"

"My real name is Rotor…the only people that called me Boomer before were my family."

Sonic's went blank at the mention of the word family, as he stared at Boomer; no, Rotor and tried to imagine how he was really feeling right now despite the work. Sally and Tails, who had overheard, couldn't help but pause for a moment and share a look; who else knew better than all three of them?

"Okay Rotor, then I guess Boomer's just gonna have to take a back seat from now on." Sonic took another swig, and braced a little for the kick from the cider as it went down his throat before placing the empty bottle down on the floor.

Rotor smiled as he continued with Bunnie. Hours passed, but the group barely gave notice to the passage of time as night fell once again, too absorbed with their own as they labored tirelessly.

Sonic was already lying on a nearby bed at the corner of the room, while Sally was still awake and going through the last of the data. Tails apparently took his best bud's example, as he too had dozed off while still sitting up at the table, resting his head on his arms as he snored lightly. A piece of paper was perched on his head, obscuring it.

Rotor, who by this time around, was already getting drowsy himself, was pushing in the last keys as he went through the last firewall. He would have given himself a slap on the back for a job well done, if he wasn't so damn tired.

Almost an hour had gone by before he found the algorithm containing Bunnie's failsafe command. He quickly deleted it and went on to check for more abnormalities in her programming. Fortunately, Sonic was able to place a fresh bag of sedative on the IV before he went to sleep.

Another 20 minutes had passed before he completed his task. Feeling like he had already done his part, Rotor stretched back in satisfaction and let out a long yawn. He spun around on his swivel chair and caught sight of Sally, who had already departed for dream land herself.

Feeling his eyelids getting heavy, his gaze fell one last time on Bunnie before he surrendered to exhaustion as well.

…

It was a quiet night, perfect for slumber.

* * *

**Woohoo! I'm on a roll here people. Here is another breather chapter. The action will be back next time so stay tuned.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie.**

* * *

_In Robotropolis_

Mornings for Doctor Ivo Robotnik were never all that eventful. He'd wake up, get a cup of coffee, and oversee everything in the city that needed attending to, all from the comforts of his chamber. Occasionally, he'd go out and do repairs himself, almost never trusting anyone; especially Snively, to do the work for him.

Ivo; as we'll call him here for simplicity, hated flaws; most especially mistakes, but at the same time, he expressed a virulent loathing of perfection as well. It's not that he wasn't a perfectionist per say; on the contrary, to him, true perfection is unattainable.

For if he was to achieve it, then what else would there be? Call him a workaholic or a misanthrope if you will, but all the same, he was never left with nothing to do.

"Blast it all Snively, not only were the Freedom Fighters able to thwart Rab-bot's assassination attempt, but they were able to hack into her central mainframe and delete any data that would prove useful to me." He said through his earpiece as he welded a hull of the new Shadowbot factory shut. "I can't even control her remotely anymore."

Snively was listening intently, garnering at least some form of amusement from hearing his uncle's tirades over programming in the new modifications for the Shadowbots into the assembly line's main computer.

"Calm yourself sir. It's not like the entire factory was destroyed. We were able to douse the fire and salvage what we could from the wreckage."

"Factories can be rebuilt Snively, it's my pride that's irreparable." Ivo spat, directing several worker bots to assemble the beams of the building's frame.

"_I wish your ego was just as damaged_. Well sir, if it were up to me, the repairs would be more of a prevalent priority rather than ranting aimlessly. My ears could use a rest after all." Snively said with a slight air of disinterest.

"Don't provoke me nephew. Are you done with your part there?" Ivo asked as he was replacing the damaged parts of the assembly lines.

"Yes sir, I was able to upload all of the mods that Doctor Boomer had developed. In addition, I have installed the upgrades you recommended."

"Good. By the way Snively, if I ever hear that ingrate of a walrus' name again, it'll be too soon." He said as he hovered over the half-finished factory in his hover platform.

On the other side of the city, as the usual activity was bustling about in the mechanical inhabitants' daily routines and duties, a lone figure trudged through the streets. The darkness of the alleyway obscuring him as he carried on, ever so careful as to avoid ritters or bots.

Barefooted, he ran as fast as his legs could take him, with the pitter-patter of his steps barely audible to be detected.

Tired, he stopped around a corner to rest. He sat down and hung his head, taking slow, deep breaths. He then noticed something in his peripheral vision; an old fire escape that Robotnik had neglected.

He grinned, revealing his bare canines. Getting up from his position, he heard the faint clanking of metal nearby. Immediately, he ran towards the ladder and leaped up with cat-like agility to grab the end. Unfortunately, due to the sheer age of the metal, it had become worn and rusted. The sudden addition of his weight brought the ladder down with a loud clang, causing the right side at the top to be torn off, leaving him dangling precariously near the ground.

Cursing his luck, he was brought back into attention by footsteps edging closer. Tightening his grip, he leapt up from one railing to another, causing the fragile support to break further. His jump had only taken him so far however, as the swaying of the ladder increased dangerously.

He looked up again and saw that he was near the top. With another short burst of strength, he leaped one more time, causing the entire ladder to break away and fall to the ground; its resounding echo alerting a few more bots nearby. Hanging for dear life on the railing of the fire escape, he struggled to lift his other hand up.

Days without food and water started to catch up with him, exhaustion overtaking his body. A final jolt of determination was all he needed to grab the railing with his other hand, and with what little strength he had left, lifted himself up unto the platform.

Quickly, he jumped into the abandoned building and leaned back against the wall next to the window. Frozen in place, he was careful not to move an inch as he feared that even the slightest movement could tip their sensors off.

Very slowly, he leaned forward against the edge of the window to get a glimpse of the outside, peeking down at the bots that had gathered to examine the remains of the damaged ladder.

All of them were robians; a platypus, a cow, a bear, and an echidna. For a few minutes, the group just stood there, staring at the source of the noise, before sharing looks with one another and taking their leave. As they disappeared out of sight, he heaved a sigh of relief and fell down to sit on the floor.

He hung his head and ran a hand through his hair, then looked up to see the empty corridor before him. The walls, the floors and even the doors had all surrendered to age, with various items scattered all around; broken toys, furniture and even an old SWATbot head that was lying in between an open door frame.

He glowered at the scene, the faint memory of having been here before emerging in the back of his mind. It was all a blur to him now as it happened so long ago; in a different time. The stress of living and surviving in the city had taken its toll on him after so many years.

Feeling parched, he dug a hand into the pocket of his trousers and brought out a small metal flask. It was old, and had long lost its polished sheen. Now, it was but the only memento the young man had left of his former life.

He twisted the cap open and lifted it to his mouth to take a swig, but stopped before the brim could even touch his lips as he heard another sound.

Alarmed, he slipped the flask back into his pocket before finding an old lead pipe sticking out of one of the floorboards. Without thinking he pulled it out and crept around the empty corridor, his eyes wandering wildly as he positioned himself at the ready.

In a cold sweat, he spun around a few times, praying to whatever God was out there to keep him safe. A full minute had gone by as he made his way to the top of the stair hall, his mouth going dry from thirst; why the hell did he pass up that drink?

His heart pounding in his chest, he couldn't help but feel that this scenario seemed familiar, one which he had gone through so many times. The eerie calm before the storm which he knew from experience; experience that he was all too grateful for. With the pipe still in hand, he walked to the other side of the hall and found himself in another empty corridor.

No longer able to endure the dryness in his mouth, he took out the flask from his pocket and took a quick swig. He let the liquid swirl before it went down his throat, relieving him of his thirst, despite the burning sensation from the aftertaste of the beverage; his own recipe.

He then fell down again and leaned against an old foam bed before rubbing his eyes as sleep began to overpower him.

"You are getting too old for zis shit Antoine, and you being young iz not helping much."

* * *

**Character Bio**

**Name: Antoine D'Coolette**

**Age: 17**

**Info: An immigrant from Western Mercia. Antoine and his family moved to Mobotropolis because of his father's service to the military. It was at that point in his youth that the young coyote was trained by his père to follow in his footsteps.**

**Unfortunately, Robotnik had Antoine's entire family killed by a SWATbot firing squad for opposing his regime. Leaving him orphaned and forced to fend for himself ever since.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog belongs to SEGA and Archie**

* * *

"So this is all of the stuff I have to get in the city?" Sonic asked as he went through a piece of paper containing a list.

The duo was standing just outside of the Club House, which was obscured with its built in camouflage. "Yes Sonic. We took what we could find in the data that Rotor gave us and started development on modifying the trucks back at Knothole into fortified tank cruisers, which is why you have to go into Robotropolis and get the parts we need," Sally said as she slipped in Sonic's supplies inside the backpack that he was wearing.

"Uh-hu well, I could probably do you over for a couple of these ma'am, but I have to be honest with you, I don't charge cheap." Sonic grinned slyly.

Sally punched him on the shoulder. "Just be back here before dinner so I won't have to waste my time worrying about you."

He gestured for a fist bump, which she returned. "Pfft, you kidding? I'll be back faster than you can say 'Robotnik is a chump', I'll even cook for you if you want."

"Tempting," Sally rubbed her chin with her finger, "but I'd much rather take my chances with tree bark. Now get out of here before I flog ya." She gave him a light shove, causing him to stumble forward a bit.

He darted a glance back at her, a thin smile on his face as he caught her eye. "How would you like it? Steamed or charbroiled? Catch ya later Sal, time to juice and jam!" And with that, he was off in a blur; disappearing into the darkness of the forest.

Sally looked on longingly as she ran a hand through her arm. "Be careful."

* * *

As Sonic was blazing through the forest, his thoughts began to race at the same pace, as memories of the past 3 days after their study session began running through his mind.

During that night, Rotor discovered that Bunnie was still connected to a wireless up-link via a backdoor, which unsurprisingly led to Robotropolis after he isolated the signal. This was further proof that she was indeed not in control of her actions when she attacked them. As Robotnik no doubt had remote access to her.

On the first day, Tails managed to convince Rotor to reverse engineer some of her weapons to see if they could be replicated for others' use, an offer that the latter was initially reluctant on. Understandably, Tails promised that if such an endeavor were to hurt Bunnie in any way, he would refrain from it immediately.

It wasn't that they didn't respect her; far from it actually. Bunnie was treated with the utmost care while she remained inside the Club House, free to walk around and explore the place.

She was even given clothes to wear; a simple white t-shirt sans pants since they couldn't exactly find a pair to fit her bionic legs. Next was the rather awkward task of feeding her. According to Rotor, her digestive tract had been modified to completely convert any foodstuffs she were to consume into nutrients that her organic body would need, leaving any residual waste as additional fuel for her cybernetics.

It was awkward because Sonic couldn't help but imagine...you know what, maybe its best if I just stop there.

Not long after, she started learning a few more words, which Rotor explained as the programming he installed kicking in.

On the second day, Tails pitched the suggestion of converting the trucks, and drew up the initial blue prints on them, with an added touch from Rotor.

Bunnie's development was also going smoothly, with Tails and Rotor taking turns to teach her how to read and do other simple tasks.

Never did Sonic ever see a better team than those two, with his best bud finally interacting with someone that actually knew what he was talking about; not that Sonic was ever that inept if Tails did him a courtesy of simplifying things for him, but there were times when he wished that he did understand.

Science was never really his forte to begin with, as he had told Rotor before. This didn't help when other people would think that the nephew of the renowned Sir Charles Hedgehog would share such interests, but they could never have been more wrong.

Sonic never felt comfortable with anything that complicated, and whenever his Uncle Chuck put him up for a lecture, his mind would wander to other things like playing games, running around the city, and seeing if he could bug Sally if she wasn't too busy.

Those were the good days. His brief reminisce made him lose traction for a moment, but regained it as he carried on. After a sonic boom, his perception of his surroundings started to slow down. This was hardly his best record, with him not feeling the burn in his muscles.

On the third day, the freed mobians back at Knothole were still settling down, busily working on their homes and contributing what they could to their community. Just as Sally had predicted however, a small number of them came to sign up to join the FFs.

He would have run a hand through his face if he wasn't tearing through the terrain; reminded of all the paperwork he had to go through to approve those that were qualified. That was one of the things he dreaded most out of being Sally's second-in-command; all of that bureaucratic stuff.

"_It's like I'm her secretary or something, but I guess somebody has to do the job_." Taking a right turn by a fork along the path, he found a cliff overhead. With a smirk, he ran straight over the edge and did a spin dash to break his fall from a sheer 15 foot drop.

Getting back on his feet, he dashed forward and jumped over a small hill and somersaulted to the ground, barely losing acceleration. "_Now this is living, nothing like my daily fix from a morning jog_."

To Sonic, running was more than just a means of a quick getaway or getting things done in a second. It served as a sort of proof that he was alive, that he existed, with the adrenaline rush giving him that all too sweet high. This was his buzz, reveling in the pure, almost surreal pleasure that his speed gave him.

Today now would be the fourth, and with it a new mission; more like an errand, and this time, he'd go at it alone, not that he ever minded going solo. At the rate that he was going, it didn't take long until he had Robotropolis in his sights, giving himself another push as he headed straight for the large sewage pipe under the city. Without losing a breath, he vibrated through the railing, bypassing the sensitive alarm that was installed above the frame.

Now that he was inside, he decelerated a little to ease the tension from his steps to avoid too much of a disturbance, letting the water splash around the walls as he ran by, which; much to his disgust, made the putrid stench all the more noticeable, causing him to scrunch up his nose; revulsion building in his stomach.

The sewers of Robotroplis were a maze where one could easily get lost if ill prepared, but Sonic had been through them so many times he always knew which part of the city he was under. He made several turns, loops and jumps; mindful of ritters and any form of surveillance that Robotnik had installed.

Throughout the years, the big guy grew accustomed to Freedom Fighters using the sewers, making it easy for him to capture any who would so much as enter. Only Sonic had any real chance of avoiding such a fate.

In here, Sonic's speed and ingenuity were his greatest assets, dodging all of the numerous traps and bots that got scattered around. Sure every now and then they'd get lucky, but the hedgehog would always outmatch them and escape.

He came to a halt by a ladder leading up to a manhole. With ease, he quickly climbed up and opened the cover just barely to peer around the area to see if it was safe.

"_No bots, perfect. Now to go through that list_." Exiting the sewer, he sped to the nearest pile of garbage and hid under an old storage box. He then slipped a hand in his backpack and took out the piece of paper.

"_Let's see…first I have to get some fuel cells, then a heat excahnger, knobs for the control modules, hex cap screws and something called a flux dynamic perpetuator_?" Sonic scratched his head at the last one, before seeing an arrow drawn next to the sentence leading to a small memo at the bottom of the paper.

"_Drwing insd bag dumy_!"

Sonic furrowed his brows as a smile formed on his lips. "_Good 'ol Sal_!" He then dug a hand back into the bag and procured a folded sheet of paper and unraveled it. The Flux Dynamic Perpetuator; or the FDP, was small and appeared to be a small wristband, with a circular disc outside, with one bolt each protruding out of its up and bottom.

Hoping to make time, he quickly slipped the sheets of paper back into the bag and made a break for the nearest machine shops. Almost every building in the city was a shop of some sort, distributing spare parts to accommodate on the spot repairs and maintenance.

Most of them were once prominent businesses like grocery stores, salons, cafes, etc. until Robotnik converted them. Bots swarmed them as if it was a market place, getting their daily quota of ammunition, parts, and cleaning.

To add insult to injury, most of these establishments were still run by their former owners, now mindless drones bent to the dictator's every will.

Finding his way into a narrow alleyway, he backed against a corner where it was just dark enough for him to be unseen, hoping that the robians and SWATbots were too preoccupied to even notice. His eyes wandered around, hoping to find a shop where he could swipe some of the parts that he needed.

As opportunity would have it, his eyes landed on a small one across the left side of his position. It appeared to be a barber shop; or used to be, with the owner outside managing small boxes full of knobs.

"_Bingo_!"

Sonic quickly looked away as a bot went by and stared at the wall in front of him before taking a deep breath. Concentrating, he relaxed his muscles and started to vibrate. Slowly at first, then faster, and faster, and faster, until he vanished, letting the light pass through his molecules.

He then opened his eyes and looked at his hands. "_Don't know how long I can do this, but it's now or never_."

With a few quick steps while dodging the sea of bots, he made his way to the small stall in front of the barbers and took several knobs from the boxes and slipped them into his bag. He then ran up a nearby building and stopped vibrating. Taking cover under a large ventilation system.

"_Knobs are good. What's next_?" He quickly brought out the list and the words "hex cap screws" caught his eye.

"_Hex caps, hex caps...where oh where forth art thou_?" Carefully, he crawled to the edge of the building and looked down, surveying several of the shops, with most of them being obscured by busy robians. Sonic laughed to himself at the sight. If they weren't such mindless mechanical slaves, he could have sworn that they were still the good, organic citizens of Mobotroplis just enjoying a day out in the town and going about their ways without a care.

For a brief moment, the repulsive visage of Robotnik made its way into his mind. Sonic gnashed his teeth at the thought, his right hand tightening into a fist on the concrete. "_One day you bastard...one day I'm gonna make you pay_!"

Refocusing his attention to the task at hand, he resumed looking around the street to see if he could find at least some of the items on the list. Fortunately, he no longer needed to wait as he saw a stall with heat exchangers.

Most of them were large, while others were no bigger than him. Making out one that was just the right size for him to carry, he ran back and made a u-turn to build up momentum, and launched himself towards the building across, cushioning himself by curling into a ball roll up to his feet..

He then walked to the back of the building, and sure enough there was a fire escape. It was rusted and probably a bit fragile, but he was light enough. Carefully, he grabbed on to the edge of the building and lowered himself down, then released his grip and landed on the railings with a light clang.

Sonic paused in place and braced himself for anything; the fire escape giving way or a bot that might have heard him. Nothing. He sighed in relief and started for the ladder. As his hand was about to grab the clasp that locked it in place, he noticed that the ladder was on the ground. Surprised, he scratched his head in wonder before hearing a faint rustling sound.

Alarmed, he backed up against the building and looked around. The alleyway was empty, save for a few ritters that were scurrying about in some old trashcans. He turned to his right and spotted an old broken window, with little options and not willing to blow his cover, he opened it and went inside.

His feet barely made a sound as they made contact on the floorboards. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he fell down to sit and get his bearings straight as he hung his head.

It was then that the rustling came back. He looked up and stood in an instant, his eyes slowly surveying the empty hall, illuminated by the sunlight that invaded through the window.

"Show yourself!" He said to no one, unaware of the lone figure that was looming behind the half open door of the first room from where Sonic was standing.

The figure grinned and took a swig from his flask, the last droplet falling on the tip his tongue as he spun around to reveal himself. He leaned his elbow against the frame of the door as he studied the newcomer. A thin smile of relief grew on his face to see that that it was an organic; and maybe, friendly too.

"Care for a drink monsieur?" He dangled the flask in his hand as the hedgehog relaxed his form, but not his guard.

"Come closer so I can see you!" Sonic said sternly.

"If you say so my friend," the stranger said with a heavy Mercian accent. He raised his arms in the air and walked into the light.

"You're a coyote, Mercian too. Who are you and what are you doing here?" Sonic asked as he pointed a finger at him, with the coyote's thin smile forming into a lazy grin, his eyes droopy with exhaustion.

"Ah, forgive me. Allow me to introduce myself my brozer. I am Antoine D'Coolette. son of Armand and Clémence D'Coolette," he bowed and scraped before looking up, "and you are?"

"Sonic the Hedgehog, and what's with calling me brother?"

"You are Mercian as well, no?" He asked as he brushed some dust off the shoulder of his coat, which he wore as a makeshift cape.

Sonic grinned at the familiarity to his ancestral roots. "Oui."

"Ah, zen we have an understanding. Eh…by ze way, you wouldn't happen to have ah; how you say, a bite to eat, would you?" Antoine said as he looked over the hedgehog's backpack longingly.

* * *

**Vive la Mercia!**


	16. Chapter 16

Updates will be delayed for a time. Brainstorming is hard dudes. This chapter will be replaced eventually.

However, that isn't the only reason why I made this chapter. The following below is copied from a deviant I made. For those interested, Google Sonic SatAM Sea3on.

* * *

Sea3on, the most way past cool webcomic to ever hit the internet is under some serious financial issues right now, and Paul (the one running the site) has asked for help.

Almost all of us who have followed the webcomic know of its humble beginnings, and we've been there anticipating every update whenever we can through thick and thin. Never has a comic ever made me hope for a Monday or Friday to come, crossing my fingers and hoping for there to be a new people behind it are some of the most dedicated of Sonic fans that are actually hard at work in delivering the best of what they can.

So now, as fans ourselves, we need to do our part in maintaining Ben Hursts' legacy and vision. To all who care, please lend a hand.

For those who have become disillusioned with Archie Sonic, Sea3on is one of the few; if not **the** only, best adaptations of Sonic SatAM that has stayed true to its roots, the series that drew us into the fandom with the inspiration to create art and other projects to honor the blue blur.

We have the power, and with that power, we must keep the fire of Sonic burning for the next generation of fans.

Thank you.

* * *

Sea3on is having money problems. As fans of the blue blur, let's all do our part and support Ben Hursts' legacy and keep it running.

For those of you who cannot spare a donation, please spread the word. Go to the main site and read Paul's comment and see if you can help.

To all of my readers, thank you for all of the feedback.


End file.
